PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF (2025)

I can find nothing in documentarian Matt Wolf’s short list of credits to have expected the consistent excellence of this two-part/three-hour look at Paul Reubens and the child-like Pee-Wee Herman character he created, less alter-ego than chef d'oeuvre.  Performance art with a spoonful of sugar for mass appeal.  Almost everything on Reubens’ life proves interesting: his family & Sarasota, Florida upbringing (winter home of Ringling Bros. Circus at the time); his college days amid the avant-garde art movements at CalArts; the L.A. comic scene of the ’70s where he found himself professionally attached to The Growlings; the remarkably smooth stage-birth of Pee-Wee.  From there, Part One escalates thru a quick rise to his first studio film with Tim Burton directing his first feature.*  Behind this, the life of an openly gay guy making a calculated move into the closet to advance professionally.  In Part Two, success abounds with his tv Playhouse only to suddenly curdle with a pair of suspect/homophobic-tinged arrests derailing everything.  Told mostly in a straight chronological order with the usual archival clips and fine, if unexceptional interviews from friends & co-workers (and few cultural commentators - hurrah!), plus lots & lots of Reubens’ Talking Head.  Which is just fine since he’s the Talking Head of a documentary filmmaker’s dream: inventive, funny, truthful, teasing, knowing when to get off a point and how much to reveal/conceal.  A constant delight talking about himself or others, even at his prickliest.  These things don’t get much better.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE/’85.  Avoid the unhappy BIG TOP PEE-WEE/’88 follow-up.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/pee-wees-big-adventure-1985.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Perhaps the biggest surprise comes in seeing just how influential Reubens was.  Especially compared to other crossover Performance Arts types you may think of first.