return of the king

Dramatic new docuseries on the Texas Renaissance Festival could be the next Tiger King

Ren Faire premiered at South by Southwest on March 9, 2024.

Film still from Ren Faire

It was surprising — at least to this reporter — to see a packed house at the South by Southwest (SXSW) world premiere of Ren Faire on March 9. It's not a sexy topic; a docuseries detailing a theatrical leadership change at the Texas Renaissance Festival. But the fantasy nerds are out in droves at this festival, as proven by last year's opening film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Two more concrete details must have contributed. The Texas Renaissance Festival is purportedly the largest in the United States, so naturally its many fans were eager to see behind the curtain. And presciently, audience members surely realized a film co-produced by Uncut Gems' Josh and Benny Safdie (among others) would be a unique hit.

The three-part series, directed by South Floridian filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, introduces viewers to the festival's octogenarian founder and leader, George Coulam, a.k.a. King George. This eccentric, fervent planner has determined he has nine years left to live, and would like to spend that time finding a (much younger) companion — which he can't do while managing a massive Renaissance faire.

Vying for King George's succession in the hour-long first episode are general manager and former Shakespeare actor Jeffrey Baldwin, and "kettle-corn kingpin" Louie Migliaccio. Although King George defies categorization, Baldwin and Migliaccio are strongly archetypical.

Baldwin, portrayed as naive and sycophantic (think Dwight Shrute from The Office in the salesman's more docile moments), falls under a more sympathetic gaze in this portion of the series. Migliaccio — over-caffeinated, in what could have been a zealous product placement deal with Red Bull — is a villain from one of his very first lines, lauding capitalism within the utopic space.

The tone of the series is auspiciously similar to one of this decade's largest streaming hits, Netflix's Tiger King. The driving character in both: a charismatic iconoclast with a very niche and all-consuming profession, an insular world full of disciples, and a country-flavored political streak. (King George is also the mayor of Todd Mission, the town incorporated just to house the fest.)

Ren Faire is unexpectedly and deeply funny in the way only true stories can be. Whereas Tiger King's Joe Exotic seemed primed to burn everything down for a sincere, if paranoia-riddled dream; King George is a businessman who's kind of over the whole thing. He's got his Viagra, 15 dating profiles, a vision board, and a team of angel statues with whom he consults. Both kings spearheaded their respective series with a natural abundance of absurd one-liners.

The film draws an explicit parallel between its real-life drama and Shakespeare's King Lear. King George, Baldwin, Migliaccio — all three longtime performers in some respect — are skilled in embodying big characters, and this comes out in the "subjective reality" of the film, as termed by Oppenheim in the premier's post-film talkback. That's built through cinematic filming, artistic editing, and even dream-like reenactments.

"The thing that's amazing about Renaissance fairs in general, as a culture unto itself, is there's this desire to escape — leave your life behind for a few hours and just imbibe and be in a different world," Oppenheim said. "So I knew there was going to be something thematically or stylistically [that] should be happening with that."

Referencing the onscreen conversation about the Shakespearean plot and Baldwin's acting past, he added, "I started to realize that all of these people that live and work inside the Renaissance Festival are basically inside their own King Lear. And they know it; They're aware of it. ... What does that do to you, when you know that there's this sort of meta-textual thing that's happening?"

Although the surface tension (so far) is in the rivalry between Baldwin and Migliaccio, King George is still at the center of this particular solar system. And as any good movie or play would showcase, it's not the logistics that make the story, but the underlying emotional truth.

"I think the thing that's so important about this and everyone that's involved in it," said Oppenheim, "[is that] everyone loves this place as much as George once did. ... He says he's done with it, but is he? Can he give it up? When you spend your whole life being in control of a whole legion of people, what does that do to you?"

Ren Fairewill debut for the public on HBO in summer 2024.

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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