'Pee-wee as Himself' reveals the inner life of a pop culture legend
Paul Reubens may have wanted to explain very specific controversies, but director Matt Wolf made sure his documentary accomplished much more
When I was a much younger media nerd, I remember first encountering Pee-wee Herman in the coolest pop culture space of the time: David Letterman’s groundbreaking late night TV show, where he often had the character on to spar with him in a way which seemed built for Letterman’s wry, meta style.
With his tidy bow ties, high water pants and kid-in-a-grown-up-world sensibility, Pee-wee was a walking send up of ‘50s-era kids TV characters, insincere TV talk show culture, celebrity, modern cynicism and more. As he spread to films and a kids TV show, it seemed as if Pee-wee had a life of his own, delighting fans with adventures in a space which seemed neatly and absurdly adjacent to the reality the rest of us were living.
That’s why it was so jarring, in 1991, to get my first real glimpse of the man behind the character, courtesy of Paul Reubens’ mug shot after he was arrested in a Sarasota adult movie theater and charged with indecent exposure.
Tonight, HBO and Max debut Pee-wee as Himself, a revelatory, two-part documentary that mostly features Reubens talking about his life, from his early days growing up in a Sarasota home where his parents were friends with circus folks, to time spent developing the Pee-wee character in the Groundlings comedy troupe all the way through to his arrests in 1991 and 2002 and beyond.
I wrote a review for NPR.org – click here to read -- where I noted Reubens’ consistent struggle with director Matt Wolf over control of the documentary:
"‘Many people – alright, everyone but me – feel that you don't, as the subject of a documentary … you don't have perspective really on yourself," Reubens says, winking impishly at the lens, like a graying version of Pee-wee. "I will argue that. And you and I are going to be arguing that for a long, long time. Until this documentary is finished. You mark my words.’
Unfortunately, Reubens never got a chance to see the finished project, which debuts Friday on HBO and Max. After taping 40 hours of interviews, he unexpectedly cut off contact with Wolf and the production after a year. As the documentary notes, Reubens died July 30, 2023 — he had been fighting cancer for years, but kept his diagnosis private from almost everyone.
The day before he died, however, he did record audio featured in the film. "More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documentary was to let people see who I really am and how painful and difficult it was to be labeled something I wasn't … a pedophile," Reubens says in a raspy voice. "I knew it was going to change everything moving forward …’"
Pee-wee as Himself continues a trend in modern documentaries of looking back at controversial pop culture moments from decades ago with fresh perspectives. In the light of modern sensibilities, Reubens’ insistence that he didn’t expose himself in the theater and was being harassed for his collection of vintage porn sounds more reasonable.
It’s clear from the documentary that Reubens was focused on providing his version of those controversies in an attempt to redefine how the world might remember him. To Wolf’s credit, he kept control to create a documentary which does so much more – revealing as much as anyone could about a brilliant performer who rarely let the world see who he really was.
Click here to read the rest of my review and look below to see a preview of the documentary, which is well worth your time over a Memorial Day weekend.