Movie profile

Plastic Paradise: A Swingin' Trip Through America's Polynesian Obsession

Plastic Paradise is the first documentary to chronicle the rise, fall, and resurgence of tiki, or Polynesian pop, one of the defining cultural trends of postwar America. Think South Pacific, candy-colored, rum-infused cocktails with names like the Shrunken Skull and the Missionary's Downfall, crazy Hawaiian shirts, exotica music, and a nonstop party scene inhabited by self-styled nonconformists. That was then. Today, tiki has been embraced by a coast-to-coast underground hipster subculture of former punk rockers, vintage junkies, and escapists. Featuring historians and hula dancers, master mixologists, mermaids, and more, Plastic Paradise is your ticket to this little-known, fascinating scene, including a pilgrimage to the famed Mai-Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale for Hukilau, an annual anything goes celebration that draws Polynesian popsters from all over the world.

Directed by Brett O'Bourke