Directed by: Matt Wolf
Starring: Paul Reubens (interview subject)
Pee Wee as Himself is not a standard documentary about a famous actor and the character he created which became entrenched in pop culture in the 80's and 90's. Pee Wee Herman is still beloved today, while its creator Paul Reubens seemed to lament not being known as being anything but Pee Wee Herman. Many actors and comedians wish they had his problems, but the late Reubens comes across in this documentary as someone at odds with himself in many ways, not least of which is his ambivalence about consenting to be interviewed for forty hours for the documentary.
Pee Wee's Big Adventure thrust Reubens into the spotlight in 1985 after toiling for years on the L.A. comedy circuit. Before assuming the Pee Wee Herman character, Reubens struggled as an actor with bit parts in short films and working the comedy circuit. Once he crafted Pee Wee, the rest was history. The two-part documentary, directed by Matt Wolf, shows Reubens as a person so intensely private he did not inform anyone that he was privately battling lung cancer for six years. Reubens playfully, and sometimes not, addresses the camera and reluctantly reveals his story like a magician unwilling to part with the secrets to his tricks. He was someone who wasn't used to ceding control, and Wolf needs to check in with him to gauge Reubens' trust in him. Reubens hands over the reins and it takes every bit of self-control to keep his teeth from gnashing.
Reubens was so committed to Pee Wee Herman that he would rarely go out in public as Reubens. He was homosexual, and the great love of his life was an artist named Guy whom he met in the 1970's. However, Reubens felt he was losing his drive to be an actor because of the relationship, and then not only broke up with Guy (who later succumbed to AIDS) but then decided to go back in the closet for fear his homosexuality would ruin his career. Following the success of Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Pee Wee's Playhouse came the failure of Big Top Pee Wee (1988), which Reubens produced and wrote. While happy about the success of Big Adventure, Reubens was also angry about not receiving enough credit as the creator of the character while feeling director Tim Burton received more credit for the movie's success. Reubens regained control with Big Top Pee Wee and it failed at the box office and with critics.
Then came the summer of 1991, when Reubens was arrested for allegedly masturbating and exposing himself in a Sarasota, Florida adult theater. He disdainfully mentions his "Charles Manson mugshot" and for the first time, Reubens made headlines minus the Pee Wee Herman persona. It was a troubling summer, and he pleaded no-contest to lesser charges. Besides a famed appearance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, Reubens did not down the suit and bowtie for another twenty years. Legal troubles in the early 2000's followed, when Reubens' home was raided for alleged child pornography. None was found, but Reubens pleaded no-contest again to a lesser charge and had to register as a sex offender.
Some moments of the documentary drag. I didn't find the behind-the-scenes aspects of Pee Wee's Playhouse as interesting as expected, maybe because I didn't watch the show. Reubens cut off the interviews after forty hours and then decided later to try and finish the project. He was not easy to work with, and Pee Wee as Himself does not attempt to hide that. What we have is Reubens trying to his hardest to be honest while keeping himself hidden in plain view of the camera. There is still mystery to Reubens, and his death in 2023 left the documentary without a true ending. However, when Reubens said goodbye as an animated Pee Wee, it contains power and displays why we loved Pee Wee Herman in the first place.
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