Drinkolas Cage: A Local Microcinema's Nic Cage Drinking Game
Drew and Billy take a trip to Arkadin Cinema for a night of Nic Cage revelry
Welcome to a special edition of Do You Like Apples! You might remember that last week we shined the spotlight on Nicolas Cage movies, and this week we are maintaining that (chaotic) energy by reporting back from our outing to Arkadin Cinema & Bar here in St. Louis for their “Drinkolas Cage” event. On the last Wednesday of each month, Arkadin shows a mystery Nic Cage movie and presents an accompanying drinking game. We attended this week, grabbed our popcorn and beers, and settled in for a night of Cage mayhem with 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Here were our takeaways.
Billy: Local microcinemas like Arkadin are a Bat-Signal for movie lovers
The idea of a microcinema is a novel concept that shouldn’t be so unique. A small movie theater is always something that will hold a place in my heart, but the literal reading of microcinema is not the proper way to look at these gifts to film lovers. Their goal is to be a Bat-Signal that has a meticulously curated viewing experience. Drawing all the film weirdos to one place, hootin’ and hollerin’ about how awesome movies are. Drew and I fit that demographic, and we have been complaining for years about diminishing mystique that surrounds going to the movie theaters. It used to be an event to go to the theater and movies are not being presented as events much these days. These microcinemas are making movie nights an event again.
Arkadin Cinema & Bar looked to open their doors in the beginning of 2020 before the world shutdown. I think Arkadin was always destined to be a neighborhood staple, but their next door neighbors, The Heavy Anchor, allowed them to use their back patio to screen a myriad of movies for any movie taste – a perfect partner if I have ever seen one. The Heavy Anchor is an already established neighborhood bar in Bevo Mill with a small concert venue. Combined with Arkadin they have one of the best event spaces in town.
If you make a movie an event, people will come. Using niche tastes, creating drinking games to accompany Nicolas Cage’s talents, and showing movies that were once massive events is the formula Arkadin is using to nurture a small but loud film community in St. Louis. As I write this they are playing the Hitchcock thriller classic North by Northwest. At the end of May they are having an Austin Powers costume party/contest and playing Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. And at the beginning of June they are showing Memoria directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a movie that is exclusively touring to movie theaters for one-night events. How cool is that!? A small microcinema that shows movies on the patio of a neighborhood bar gets to show a new movie from an auteur filmmaker.
Go to the Arkadin website and check out their upcoming shows. I can assure you that you will find a favorite of yours, a classic you haven’t seen, or a hidden cult classic. Nights watching a movie with an audience with the same love you have will always bring joy to my life. Go out to The Heavy Anchor where Arkadin Cinema & Bar plays their movies and enjoy an event we didn’t have in St. Louis just a couple years ago.
Drew: Reveling in Nic Cage’s communal power while he vomits fire
It may sound strange, but playing a drinking game during a Nic Cage movie is the perfect time to reevaluate your relationship with this eccentric and iconic actor. I probably realized this somewhere around the part where Nic Cage’s Ghost Rider vomits fire, prompting me to tip back my PBR as I couldn’t help but laugh. When you respond to each of Cage’s antics with a drink, you really lock into what exactly makes this maniac performer so compelling on screen.
My re-evaluation of Cage’s work began last year with his performance in Pig, where I was knocked out by the rare restraint and nuance he displayed. All of his outlandish Cage-y trademarks (the screaming, the unsettling laugh, the bizarre line readings) were subsumed beneath the surface in service of a character wrecked by grief and isolation. I had no idea he was capable of this type of performance. I’ve continued to reassess Cage as I’ve recently watched more of his work, learning that he’s capable of more than I previously assumed. He brought his charming goofball energy to the timeless 1987 romantic comedy Moonstruck. His outsized screen persona meshed surprisingly well with director Ridley Scott in the 2003 con man caper Matchstick Men. Yes, he frequently appears in bottom-of-the-barrel genre dreck like Ghost Rider, but those (mostly fun) films don’t fully encapsulate the Nic Cage experience.
I’d also forgotten what it was like to watch a Nic Cage movie with other people. More than just about every actor, his performance style begs for audience interaction. The thing about Cage is that while he’s often ridiculous and absurd, he never mails it in. Just read what his collaborators have said about him over the years and you’ll hear about a true professional that shows up prepared and engaged. Cage is our ultimate mainstream oddball entertainer. His highly theatrical style is much more in line with silent film and what you might see on stage, which stands in stark contrast to the naturalistic methods of most modern-day film actors. He almost always goes for it, no matter if he’s in a major blockbuster or a low-budget and little-seen direct-to-video flick.
In fact, the Ghost Rider sequel we watched for “Drinkolas Cage” is a good example of a Cage movie that falls in between those two types. With shoddy CGI on a $57 million budget, truly awful reviews, and an immediately forgettable plot with dreadful dialogue, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance features another wild, off-the-wall Cage character that invites viewers to enjoy the hell out of themselves. Sitting with the audience at Arkadin this week, I sensed that we weren’t mocking Cage at all. Instead, with each and every Cage yelp, guffaw, and insane moment (including the times Ghost Rider pissed fire), we were reveling in his work together. This objectively terrible demon biker movie acted as a kind of communal force on us. And we have the one and only Nic Cage to thank for that.