Mostly improvised by real bar patrons, this hilarious and sometimes heart-rending Las Vegas drinking session is a classic slice of Americana
If ever you had the idea there was something bohemian or glamorous or Bukowskian about drinking in a Las Vegas bar … then this movie will wise you right up. It’s a docu-realist fiction about a seedy place called The Roaring 20s, in Las Vegas, which is about to close for good. (The films was actually shot at a place called The Roaring 20s in New Orleans, which is still open for business, but maybe there’s something about the desolation and melancholy in a bar that makes every closing time feel like the last closing time ever.) The film-makers got the barflies present, with one professional actor in the mix, to improvise over a long day’s journey into night and the following day, while doing real drinking and apparently dropping real acid. This isn’t actually as spectacular as they have might have expected; it leads only to a belligerent near-fight.