Chewed Up VHS Review: The Last Picture House Movie Theatre: Davenport, IA Written by Travis Neer

This spot’s right in downtown Davenport on East 2nd Street, just a short walk from the river. The building looks sharp on the outside, and inside it’s even better. They’ve got two theaters with big, comfy seats, insane sound, and they can run movies in high-tech laser or old-school 35mm film.

The bar is a cool hangout on its own—movie posters, props, and the kind of lighting that makes you want to stay awhile. Best part? The rooftop. You can sit up there, drink in hand, looking out at the Mississippi and Arsenal Bridge while a movie plays under the stars.

Pretty hard to beat that. It’s owned by the two guys from Iowa who wrote A Quiet Place, and you can tell they actually care about making it a place people want to come back to. They play everything—new releases, old favorites, weird indie stuff. Not just a theater, it feels like a place to hang out.

Like Tom Hanks said in Nothing in Common with Jackie Gleason, “It’s the Quad Cities—twice as good as the Twin Cities.” This place proves it.

If you’re in Davenport, skip the mall theaters and hit this place. You’ll thank me later.