Pee-wee as Himself

There is both an immediate intimacy and sadness when a close up of Paul Reubens' face appears on screen. We lost the actor from cancer in 2023 and this posthumous documentary is like receiving a letter from a dead friend. This is a portrait of a man who kept secrets - the documentary filmmakers didn't even know he was dying. It's looking over everything, a reflection of a life lived, and laying it out warts and all. I found it to be fascinating. For example, did you know that Paul Reubens was in the same theatre group as Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) and Phil Hartman? Hartman was on Pee-wee's Playhouse before leaving for SNL. Laurence Fishburne was also a Pee-wee Playhouse regular. Like I said, fascinating. Reubens himself was as ambitious as Joan Rivers - he gave up a lot and pushed himself back into the closet for the sake of a career. He became one of the biggest and most recognizable stars of the 1980s. Pee-wee Herman was huge. Then it came all crashing down. It's an intimate portrait and as an artist and a collector of stuff, I felt I could relate to a lot of it. I found it to be very moving. Both melancholy and inspiring. One of the best celebrity documentaries I've seen. Catch it streaming on HBO.