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

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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