The Legend of Cocaine Island

This peculiar documentary will amuse some and annoy others. Near the end of The Legend of Cocaine Island, the judge who presides over the case of Rodney Hyden describes Hyden's actions as "Walter Mitty meets Breaking Bad." As one of the only people in the documentary who comes off as levelheaded and sane, this judge accurately sums up this strange story. The action takes place in Florida, and Hyden -- as a businessman down on his luck after the 2008 recession -- is representative of the men who so often appear in the tragicomic news stories that originate from the Sunshine State. 

The problem with the documentary is that this offbeat tale doesn't really have enough to sustain it into a feature-length film. And one gets the sense that even the filmmaker, deep down, knows this to be true -- hence all of the reenactments and excessive interview footage. There's also something suspect about using Hyden himself in these reenactments. Furthermore, while the documentary explores deeper themes, such as entrapment and the American Dream after the 2008 financial crash, the glaring omission here is the foregone conclusion that if Hyden had not been white, this documentary would have been a lot less of an amusing tale. Nonetheless, at its best, The Legend of Cocaine Island is up there with Errol Morris' Vernon, Florida in terms of accurately revealing the eccentrics and dreamers who help give Florida that extra dash of peculiarity lacking in the rest of America.