Saturday, June 20, at the TCL Chinese Theatre
By Teri Kinne
Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) 06/20/2026 – A tiki mug might look like a kitschy souvenir, but in Cabali and the Tiki Mug Obsession it becomes a doorway into history, obsession, and the surprisingly tender business of how people find one another.
The new feature documentary made its Los Angeles premiere at Dances With Films LA 2026 on Saturday, June 20, at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Directed by Joshua Dragotta and built around lifelong collector Doug “Fini” Finical, the 96-minute film tells two stories at once. One follows Fini, a self-described mug addict who has spent more than two decades amassing a collection of over a thousand tiki mugs. The other traces the history of tiki itself, a uniquely Californian subculture, through the very objects that came to define it.
“Our film is two stories interwoven,” Dragotta said when we sat down between screenings at the festival. “One is about Fini. The other is about the history of the subculture of tiki and tiki mug collecting.”
I have my own small corner in this world. I worked at Don the Beachcomber in Malibu during college, back when there were cocktails on fire, wonderfully strange music, and rats living in the old, thatched ceilings. When I mentioned it to the filmmakers on the orange carpet a few nights before, their faces lit up, and we laughed about later during our interview.
What surprised the filmmakers, it turns out, was where the film landed. Dragotta went in wanting to tell a story about a man finding his purpose, and about a community bound by a shared love. He came out with something else.
“What we found, after the first group of people had seen the film, was that the comment we kept getting was this was a film about people,” he said. “It was about connecting. It was about a connection to one another. And that to me was just the coolest thing that happened.”
He sees an allegory in the second half of the film, which follows Fini’s quest to build Cabali, a speakeasy-style tiki bar in Oro Valley, Arizona, designed to house his collection. “At a certain point, if you are a good artist, you start listening to the space and where it is telling you it is going to go,” Dragotta said. “The filmmaking process and the building of the room were very much alike.”
That instinct is what keeps Cabali from becoming a niche curiosity. The filmmakers are likable, the subject is fun and colorful, and the film is genuinely well made. It uses tiki as a lens, not a limit. Finical, for his part, is clear-eyed about why it works.
“If you really want people to care, you are going to have to transcend tiki at some point,” Finical said. “We all know some obsessive person. They just might not be into tiki mugs. The broad strokes are about humanity, really.”
The film is also, unapologetically, a pleasure. “Our film is really about escapism,” Dragotta said. “You get caught up in the audio, because we have a fantastic soundtrack by Tony Marsico, and the visuals. For 96 minutes you step into this world and hopefully forget about what is going on outside the theater.” The tagline says the rest: every mug has a story.
The documentary features appearances by Kate Flannery of The Office and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rundgren, and the team has been clever about meeting the culture where it lives, gathering enthusiasts at the legendary Tiki-Ti before the premiere and hosting a post-screening reception at the Powerhouse Bar.
I plan to visit Fini’s tiki sanctuary in person. It is part of my past, and part of our shared American past. Now, with this documentary made and premiered, it is part of the art of our present too.
Cabali and the Tiki Mug Obsession Director: Joshua Dragotta Subject: Doug “Fini” Finical Producers: Mike Clements, Tony Marsico, Joshua Dragotta, Doug “Fini” Finical Composer / Soundtrack: Tony Marsico Featuring: Kate Flannery, Todd Rundgren Runtime: 96 minutes Official Selection, 2026 Dances With Films Festival
More at cabalidoc.com and @danceswithfilms
