Arkadin Cinema & Bar

Arkadin Cinema & Bar Microcinema in South St. Louis City dedicated to programming repertory series and independent film!
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“IRONIC! RACY! STUPEFYING! That was one of our top 10 movies! [Divine and I] used to watch It every year like families w...
06/02/2026

“IRONIC! RACY! STUPEFYING! That was one of our top 10 movies! [Divine and I] used to watch It every year like families watch The Wizard of Oz” -John Waters

Showing as part of our sidebar series "John Waters Says WATCH THIS FILM!" join us for THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT on Sunday, June 14 at 4:30 p.m.

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master Looney Tunes animator to the task of capturing, in glorious De Luxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help It bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world. With raunchy gags that use popping milk bottles as a (barely) veiled cm shot, this shockingly raunchy delight is one of John Waters’ favorite films and was a direct inspiration on Female Trouble, Pink Flamingos (which features the title tune), and Cry-Baby.

Along with our summer retrospective of John Waters films we're queuing up some favorites of the Pope of Trash. Join us t...
06/02/2026

Along with our summer retrospective of John Waters films we're queuing up some favorites of the Pope of Trash. Join us this June for:
- THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT
- SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS
- THE HONEYMOON KILLERS
- POISON
- and our June $3 Mystery Movie!

John Waters says you have to watch them!

“Jim Van Bebber’s shot-on-16mm masterpiece came careening out of Dayton, Ohio in 1988 like a runaway lawnmower blade, se...
06/02/2026

“Jim Van Bebber’s shot-on-16mm masterpiece came careening out of Dayton, Ohio in 1988 like a runaway lawnmower blade, setting the standard for all nihilist street-gang movies to follow. Visceral, unspeakably violent, and fearless, Van Bebber could have easily lost his life making this film. You may lose yours watching it.” — Austin Film Society

Showing Sunday, June 7 at 4:30 p.m. don't miss a free screening of DEADBEAT AT DAWN. Playing after the VHS Swap!

The absolute definition of DIY filmmaking, DEADBEAT AT DAWN is a cult classic that deserves the moniker — an indie revenge movie with more thrills and bloody spills than all of Chuck Norris’ films combined. ‘80s visionary wunderkind Jim Van Bebber wrote, directed, did stunts and makeup FX for and starred in this raucous tale of Goose: a former gang leader whose girlfriend is slaughtered when he leaves the thug life behind. As he’s pulled back into the gang during an uneasy alliance with the murdering thugs, Goose exacts his head-crushing revenge!

Tickets are free. Seating is first come, first served.

This screening is presented by Dylan Wirt-Eaves. If you’d like to rent our theater for a public screening of one of your favorite movies, reach out

06/02/2026

This month's "Drawn Visions" animated selection for our calendar is THE WOLF HOUSE. Playing Sunday, June 7 at 7 p.m.

“A mind-blowing haunted house… Directors Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León mingle classic European fairytales in a potpourri of magical notes laden in eeriness… In both concept and ex*****on, The Wolf House will render you awestruck.” – Carlos Aguilar, TheWrap

One of the most singular and unsettling animated films ever made, THE WOLF HOUSE is inspired by the real-life case of Colonia Dignidad, a remote Chilean N**i sect founded after WWII. Painstakingly animated by Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León, this contemporary cult animation classic is a twisted fairy tale, combining stop-motion and traditional animation in a dark kaleidoscopic fantasia, photographed to appear as one continuous shot. Maria, a young woman, finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. Two pigs, the only occupants of the house, welcome her inside. The ever-shifting universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings as the animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world unto itself.

Come out for a creepy stop-motion pre-show, beginning at 6:30 pm.

“Proves how a dose of smart bad taste can be jolly good fun!” – TimePlaying this Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m. don't miss C...
06/01/2026

“Proves how a dose of smart bad taste can be jolly good fun!” – Time

Playing this Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m. don't miss CECIL B. DEMENTED.

Our summer-long John Waters retrospective kicks off with one of his most underrated features: a mocking self-tribute to weirdos, outlaws, and the transgressive power of making movies with your freaky friends! Starring Stephen Dorff as lunatic director Sinclair Stevens and a never-better Melanie Griffith as movie goddess Honey Whitlock, CECIL B. DEMENTED is a cult movie for cinephiles about a movie cult populated by cinephiles! Sinclair leads a devoted band of cinema terrorists who kidnap Honey and force her to star in their underground movie. The twist? She kinda likes it! Inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Patty Hearst (who has a cameo), CECIL is a hilarious attack on commercial cinema, a film that brought Waters back to the underground after a string of more mainstream projects. With jabs at awards, talking in the movies, and endless sequelization, CECIL B. DEMENTED is a kalashnikov aimed at the film business, mowing down delusional executives and middlebrow respectability-mongers with gleeful malice.

Come out early for a pre-show dedicated to the Pope of Trash, starting at 6 pm.

Coming next week from JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT. Playing Wednesday, June 10 at 7 p.m. “Framed by the hauntingly beautiful ...
06/01/2026

Coming next week from JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT. Playing Wednesday, June 10 at 7 p.m.

“Framed by the hauntingly beautiful landscapes of the production, it leaves an indelible mark on the soul of the viewer.” – Dbcult

The earliest surviving film by F. W. Murnau, JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT provides a stunning showcase for the German Expressionist maestro’s innovative style. The film gives a scintillating representation of Murnau’s highly expressive lighting techniques, while the plot—an eminent physician comes under the spell of an unscrupulous dancer—finds echoes in Murnau’s later masterpiece Sunrise. Conrad Veidt appears in a supporting role as a sinister painter, whose entrance eerily presages Nosferatu. “This is hypnotic, immersive cinema.” (David Bordwell)

This week at Arkadin Cinema! Note - June 6 we will host Victoria Price at Vincent-palooza! We are currently sold out of ...
06/01/2026

This week at Arkadin Cinema!

Note - June 6 we will host Victoria Price at Vincent-palooza! We are currently sold out of tickets.

05/31/2026

“Sex offences that would shock the Marquis de Sade!” – Rex Reed

Showing Friday, June 5 at 9 p.m. John Waters' FEMALE TROUBLE.

Glamour has never been more grotesque than in FEMALE TROUBLE, which injects the Hollywood melodrama with anarchic decadence. Divine, director John Waters’ larger-than-life muse, engulfs the screen with charisma as Dawn Davenport, the living embodiment of the film’s lurid mantra, “Crime is beauty,” who progresses from a teenage nightmare hell-bent on getting cha-cha heels for Christmas to a fame monster whose egomaniacal impulses land her in the electric chair. Shot in Waters’ native Baltimore on 16 mm, with a cast drawn from his beloved troupe of regulars, the Dreamlanders (including Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller), this film­—the director’s favorite of his work with Divine—comes to life through the tinsel-toned vision of production designer Vincent Peranio and costume designer/makeup artist Van Smith. An endlessly quotable fan favorite, FEMALE TROUBLE offers up perverse pleasures that never fail to satisfy.

Are you ready to get plugged in for your trip to WESTWORLD? Playing today at Arkadin at 5 p.m. Boy, have we got a vacati...
05/31/2026

Are you ready to get plugged in for your trip to WESTWORLD? Playing today at Arkadin at 5 p.m.

Boy, have we got a vacation for you… In 1973, novelist-turned-filmmaker Michael Crichton made his directorial debut with WESTWORLD, a groundbreaking fusion of science fiction and action-thriller that would prove decades ahead of its time, laying the groundwork for his later hit Jurassic Park and changing the face of sci-fi. Set in a futuristic resort where wealthy vacationers can live out their wildest fantasies in hyper-realistic theme parks, the film stars Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger, an android cowboy who goes dangerously off-script, turning old buddies Peter (Richard Benjamin) and John’s (James Brolin) dream holiday into a nightmare. Slick, suspenseful, and eerily prescient, WESTWORLD combines a gripping man-versus-machine chase with thought-provoking questions about technology, control, and the price of playing God. Packed with atmosphere and memorable performances, this cult classic remains a landmark in genre cinema, a high-tech nightmare that never loses its bite.

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5228 Gravois Avenue, St Louis
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63116

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