Review: The Donn of Tiki is a non-fiction cocktail that goes down easy

I've only been on one cruise in my life, a weekend jaunt from LA down to Ensanada and back, and during those few days at sea, I drank a lifetime's worth of rum-based beverages. It was kind of amazing how much I could ingest in a day (and how tortured the resulting nights were), but also pretty not amazing: those fruity drinks go down so easy. So sweet they barely register as alcoholic, the fruit flavors and sugar masking the punch. 

After watching The Donn of Tiki, I know that I owe that wild weekend to one Don the Beachcomber, also known as Donn Beach, also known as Ernest Gantt, also known as probably some other names. This documentary, which delves into the life and career of the pioneering mixologist, businessman, world traveler, etc., etc., spins some tall tales and tries to find the roots that hold them to the ground, and give them some sense of reality. He's a hard man to pin down, to know the truth about. Even those who were related to him or married to him have some trouble completely untangling fact from fiction. He's sort of like the Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis commercials, or the father character from Big Fish.

(I'm actually reminded of an anecdote from my college days. My best friend/roommate was Jewish, so I would sometimes accompany her to Chabad on Friday nights to participate in services and have an amazing dinner. The rabbi there was one of the coolest people I've ever met, and told me so much about Jewish faith, history, etc. He told me that there are a bunch of "extra" Jewish stories that include kind of wild things like werewolves, and that you're supposed to believe some but not all of them. If you believed them all, you were a fool. If you believed none of them, you were a heretic. That's kind of what it feels like trying to know the life of Don the Beachcomber.)

For being a documentary about a pioneer in the world of cocktails, bars, and tiki culture, The Donn of Tiki is surprisingly dry. I think it stems from the filmmakers really wanting to get the story right (or as right as possible with such a slippery subject), and really appreciating the insight of the various interview subjects who lend their expertise to the film. These interviewees are often given long runs to talk. I think some of the snippets might be a minute long or so, which doesn't sound like a lot, but is actually quite a length to just sit and listen to someone speak. Usually in a documentary, there would be at least a cut to a second camera or something to add some dynamism, but that isn't the feel here.

And while the gathered subjects are very informative, and a few have a bit of color to them, a lot of them are pretty straight-on and serious, delivering their facts, anecdotes, and opinions without a ton of personality. This isn't a horrible sin in a documentary, and the resulting film still imparts a lot of knowledge on the viewer, but it doesn't overall feel as fun as you might expect it to.

Except when it does, which is also why this doc is being featured on this here blog. The Donn of Tiki uses a bunch of animation throughout its runtime, and to great effect. This is where the movie really shines and shows some voice. One of the backbones of the film is an audio interview with Don himself, which is animated in a fantastic stop-motion style that is reminiscent of Rankin-Bass classics. The Don puppet has his cigar, tiny mustache, and air of adventure -- they captured him marvelously.

Other flashback sequences are animated in a variety of styles, that I think are sort of matched to the time period in which the events took place. Early scenes look like Fleischer cartoons, some later ones feel almost Looney Tunes-adjacent, and a few breathtaking moments toward the end of the film look like they could've been pulled from a Chomet picture. My favorite moment in the whole film comes right toward the end, when two of these styles are cut together in a stunning moment that collapses Don's life into a beautiful, poetic rhyme of animation. I wish the film had more moments like that.

But, as it is, it still spins a great story, one that involves Hollywood celebrities, bootlegging, riverboats, luaus, the mafia, and so much more. Through and through, Don feels like an immensely likable guy, one who always had his gears spinning. He was an ideas man who didn't quite have the head for business, which led to him occasionally faltering and being taken advantage of. One of the things that shines through most about him is his genuine admiration for Polynesian culture, and his desire to help preserve it and make it accessible to more people, particularly in the wake of how colonialism wiped out so much native Hawaiian culture. That was one of the neatest parts of Don's story, and one that still resonates today.

The Donn of Tiki will give you plenty of insight into where so many of the world's most popular cocktails came from, even if it doesn't tell that story with quite as much panache as it might deserve. If nothing else, it'll surely make you thirsty.

The Donn of Tiki is currently available to rent or purchase on Apple TV, and will be available on other digital platforms on August 28.