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 Faire will debut for the public on HBO in summer 2024.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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