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- 2024
- TV-14
- HBO
- 2024
- TV-14
- HBO
Summary The general manager, a former elephant trainer and a kettle-corn vendor are some of the people aiming to take over the Texas Renaissance Festival from its 86-year-old founder when he retires in the three-part documentary series from director Lance Oppenheim.
- 2024
- TV-14
- HBO
- 2024
- TV-14
- HBO
Ren Faire
Season 1 Premiere: Jun 2, 2024
79
7.4
Summary The general manager, a former elephant trainer and a kettle-corn vendor are some of the people aiming to take over the Texas Renaissance Festival from its 86-year-old founder when he retires in the three-part documentary series from director Lance Oppenheim.
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
79
100% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Mixed
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
79
100% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Ren Faire, HBO’s perceptive and surprisingly thrilling three-part portrait of the Texas Renaissance Festival as it approaches its 50th anniversary, is not that kind of story [offbeat, warmhearted nonfiction films about nerdy subcultures]. It’s Succession, but with corsets and chainmail.
If Netflix’s “Tiger King” made your jaw drop, get ready for it to fall to the ground while watching Lance Oppenheim’s wild three-part HBO series. It addictively covers the house-of-cards succession plans being hashed out for the Texas Renaissance Festival. Oppenheim melds documentary vérité for a fascinating depiction of 86-year-old King George’s (George Coulam) pursuit to pick a “suitable” successor.
With characters as richly entertaining as King George and his minions, Oppenheim needed to do little to make “Ren Faire” compelling. But, even as a young filmmaker, Oppenheim already has a strong set of visual and narrative signatures which he deploys to amplify his subject matter, rendering his stories much more like dramatic films than conventional documentaries.
By Carrie Battan
FULL REVIEW
“Ren Faire” does a lose a little steam in its final third, as the characters — now including a third contender, Darla Smith, appointed co-manager with Jeff — continue to go ‘round in circles. You may share their frustration. But as time spent in a different sort of place — different even from the one the characters imagine inhabiting — it’s a quite rewarding, even refreshing, not-overlong watch. And the ending is, in its way, happy.
Oppenheim latches onto the “Game of Thrones” aspect of this business almost to a fault. There’s a version of “Ren Faire” that grounds its drama in a world that feels less exaggerated merely by presenting a few more of the “normal” people around George and his successors. .... However, the insulated, tight POV in “Ren Faire” is intentional in that it makes us feel as crazy as George and keeps the series engaging in George's unpredictable immediacy.
Director Oppenheim paints vivid portraits of these individuals and their intertwined psychodramas, and he embellishes his action by mixing verité material with scenes in which they read scripted expository lines or speak to imaginary figures.
Director Lance Oppenheim (whose credits include the recent Hulu documentary “Spermworld”) takes a stylized approach, giving the documentary an untrustworthy and manipulated feel that suggests a number of moments were staged. But it also seems likely that Coulam is too peculiar and stubborn — too lacking in self-awareness — to be anyone other than who he is, whether a camera is there or not.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
7.4
65% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
25% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
7.4
65% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
25% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- Elara Pictures
- HBO Documentary Films
- To Be Formed
- Widows Peak
Initial Release Date: Jun 2, 2024
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-14
Genres: