Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Enter a Las Vegas dive bar on its final night before closing. The inhabitants are as shabby and unremarkable as you might expect, at first glimpse at least. When sticking around to observe them for an entire night, you begin to understand the humanity of these so-called societal rejects and failures. Sure, they might be unshowered, wreaking of booze and cigarettes, and unable to come up with a single answer to Jeopardy! but they are people who crave and deserve a sense of belonging just as much as any 9 to 5 office employee. There's a heart to this story that offers a dash of hope. Then the bar closes and everyone moves on.

I found this film very believable and as a former bartender I know many people who could have been characters in a place like this. The film builds slowly in mosaic fashion and creates a multi-dimensional depiction of a so called "third place" that has real value in our increasingly corporate homogenized world. I really liked the film.

I was initially kinda angry when I found out this wasn't a real documentary. I had this weird emotional dump. It's hard to describe but I felt cheated in a way.

Thankfully though it also works as a regular narrative film, so I've gotten past them feelings and tried judging it based on that. A fictional film with mostly non-actors. And by them standards, it's still very very good. One of the best of the year actually. Which kinda begs the question, why did they even feel the need to try to sell it as a doc in the first place?

The movie and dive into the lives of these bar flies is fantastic! I love the story and watching people who love their neighborhood watering hole. However, this does not take place in Las Vegas. This bar has never existed in Las Vegas. There are a few pickup shots from the city, but everything else is filmed in Louisiana. As a Las Vegan born and raised, it took this movie from an 8 to a 5 very quickly. It's disappointing seeing a film try and fail so hard to capture what Las Vegas is really like.

I recommend it for the human side. Attempting to set it in Las Vegas takes away more than it adds once you see it's not a Vegas Bar.

From all the reviews I'm reading... it's sounds like a movie version of an episode he did to get smoking back into bars.