The Heart in this Film is Uniquely Tremendous
This is a phenomenally touching drama depicting a father’s quest to maintain his relationship with his daughter after a divorce in the face of heavy PTSD and thoughts of suicide after active military duty.
The film is a love letter to veterans, honoring them in such a beautifully original way and really capturing the heartache they go through after coming back from war and trying to assimilate back into normal everyday American life, and even worse, the battles they endure in saving their families and marriages.
Full transparency: I had plans to watch other movies on the day of this premiere, but a close friend told me his friends produced this film. SXSW is so busy and frantic that I learned during my first festival three years ago to listen to those universal signs and go with them. So I adhered and cancelled those other plans, arriving at the premiere of ‘The Pirate King’ not knowing anything about the movie, outside of the fact that Jordana Brewster was in it and that it had something to do with pirates.
Well, I am so glad I saw this film and will be cheering for and promoting its success. It’s no surprise that IMDb has the film at a 9.4/10 so far. Its heart is uniquely tremendous.
Main actor Todd, played by Rob Riggle, was superb. It is easily my favorite individual performance of the festival overall out of twelve films. His inner turmoil forced me into his struggle with full buy-in and captivation. It’s a performance rooted in a profound level of reality; while many know Riggle for his comedy, he actually served 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He reportedly personally consulted on the script’s depiction of military bureaucracy to ensure the scenes of “assimilating back” felt frustratingly authentic.
At the Q&A on stage after the film, Riggle remarked that Todd’s singular journey is “loneliness.” To accentuate that mood, the production designer was intentional with the dichotomy of colors: scenes with the pirates at play use golds and reds, shiny string lights, and loud music. Then, the film cuts to their antithetical greys and cloudy skies, complete with long evening shots of the rolling waves moving softly against the sandy beaches.
To truly capture the isolation of Todd’s life on the water, the director opted for a “silent set” approach, filming on a decommissioned 1940s fishing vessel off the coast of Georgia. To keep Riggle in the headspace of his character’s isolation, the crew actually remained on a separate barge during filming, communicating only via headsets so that Riggle was physically alone on the boat for hours at a time. Therein, Todd was alone on his boat, dealing with missing his daughter and battling his PTSD.
Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious) is a fantastically powerful addition to this film, portraying her own struggle with inner turmoil and the shadows of past relationship abuse.
Dramatically and performance-wise, this film took the cake at SXSW 2026 within the narrative feature category. I didn’t expect it to be so powerfully hard-hitting and special.