The Rocky Horror Picture Show can be described in hundreds of ways. Over the last five decades, it’s become more than just a cult classic; it’s a cultural touchstone for people around the country, with midnight screenings popping up without warning while packing theaters. In New York, a Broadway show on Rocky Horror continues to rumble forward, and dozens of shadow casts put on performances throughout the year. It’s an expression of and an experience of queer joy, community, tradition, and fun.
Allison Berg’s documentary, Time Warp, travels to small-town America to see how they are encountering the famed film. Berg goes to Rock Springs, Wyoming to follow the director, choreographer, operator, and lead actor of a drag-theater company. Kenny Starling, a 25-year-old queer resident of Rock Springs, has decided to put on a show in his hard-nosed community. It’s a documentary that attempts to capture that queer joy, focusing on the limited outlets for self-expression in this town.
Starling recruits local teenagers, a city councilman, and anyone else who is interested to participate in his production. He welcomes them and hugs them; he creates a family. Berg spends time with nearly each and every one of the residents in the shadow cast, visiting their homes, schools, and workplaces. A common thread starts to materialize: all of them just want a place to be themselves.
Many of them, specifically the younger cast members, don’t have extensive support systems. At best, their families are unsure; at worst, their families misgender them, push them away, and refuse their way of life. But Berg sets the camera down and talks with each person in Time Warp regardless of their ideology or identity. Her voice can be heard throughout the film, prompting Rock Springs’ residents to share.
Two moments stick out in particular. Berg finds herself capturing a local city council town hall where residents get up to speak about the Starling Company’s staging of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s a peek into Rock Springs, and many towns like it across America, and how these people deal with conflict within their communities. It’s a look at how the political right weaponizes gender expression and gender ideology to ostracize and disparage the LGBTQIA+ population. It shows the way the country has shifted over the last decade of Trump’s power without ham-handedness or talking heads.
The second moment comes at a local bingo night, where the cast gives a sneak preview performance of the song “Sweet Transvestite” with Starling leading the way. It represents a possible shift in Rock Springs, a moment of acceptance of the queer artists experiencing joy under the harsh lights of a community center. Berg interviews some of the audience, and there’s a lack of understanding of what’s just happened, or what’s just not happened. There weren’t protestors or counter-programmers. There weren’t shouts or insults from the audience. There was cheering, singling along, and a round of applause.
Kenny Starling is creating queer space in Rock Springs. The town is slow to change, but over the course of the year that spans this documentary, more and more people begin embracing these performers. Time Warp is a necessary celebration of that very embrace.
Time Warp premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.