The experimental style used by the Ross Brothers helps Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets stand out as one of the most unique documentaries of 2020.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 11, 2025

Goodbye, you guys, I found myself thinking, we’ve been through a lot together. The fact that Bloody Nose makes you feel a part of this last night is pretty special.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 13, 2024

A skilfully lived-in and evocative portrait of life on the margins, which celebrates the camaraderie of a close community while adding a good measure of boozy melancholy.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 2, 2024

It’s fun in there, but it’s scary too—Bloody Nose maintains that exquisitely calibrated tonal balance until the sun comes up and I’ll be quoting it for years.

| Dec 1, 2022

A revolutionary way of subverting the documentary to tell the truth; a flickering light about to go dark, sparking joy and hubbub as memories, epiphanies and homilies spill onto the floor of a dying watering hole.

| Mar 11, 2022

[The film's realism] provides room for emotional dialogue with others. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 28, 2021

[The] brothers' formal adaptability does not at all obscure their way with character, and amidst the bar's boozy chaos, the film manages to strike some genuinely touching chords.

| Jun 5, 2021

A beautiful tribute to a pace of life fading already fading even before 2020 steamrolled over it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2021

If you're missing the pub, this film will either make you feel much better or much worse...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 23, 2021

Like a Cassavetes film, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is an experimental combination of documentary and fiction that favors characters and a sense of place over traditional story-telling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2021

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is as real as anything you're going to see, it's not important how you get there.

| Jan 27, 2021

The Ross brothers baked more into the story than you might think.

| Jan 26, 2021

Less a snapshot of life on America's fringes than a bleary napkin doodle, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets blurs the lines between fiction and fact to aptly intoxicating effect.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 4, 2021

The sense of the watering hole as a haven for lost souls - not to mention the threat of gentrification to civic space - couldn't be more vérité.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 4, 2021

This may be a clever fiction but it's fascinating, comical, and dignified delve into the American underclass, nonetheless.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2021

It was a hoot.

| Original Score: B | Dec 30, 2020

This is a fascinating slice of Americana which reminded me of 70s movie-making, like John Huston's Fat City.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 23, 2020

So yes. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a documentary. Just because the reality and humanity it captures is heightened doesn't make it any less pure.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 22, 2020

A heady vérité portrait of Las Vegas dive bar the Roaring 20s.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 21, 2020

A 100 per cent proof party movie, but depth-charged with something even more heady.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 21, 2020