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

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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