NPR

'Pee-wee as Himself' is a portrait of a private man and his public alter ego

Pee-wee As Himself tells the story of how a kid who grew up adoring The Little Rascals and I Love Lucy went on to revolutionize sketch comedy and children's television. In 1986, one of the most ...
Yahoo

‘Pee-wee as Himself’ Review: The Late Paul Reubens Opens Up — When He Doesn’t Close Up — in an Expansive Portrait

“I want to set the record straight on a couple of things, and that’s it.” So says Paul Reubens — better remembered by many viewers as offbeat children’s entertainer Pee-wee Herman — at the outset of ...
Decider

PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The world knew and loved Pee-wee Herman for more than four decades, but how much did anyone know the man behind the child-like character in the gray suit and red bow tie? Just before he died in 2023, ...
Los Angeles Times

‘Pee-wee as Himself’ gives Paul Reubens the final word on his identity

“I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River; my father worked on a steamboat and his name was Steamboat Milton,” says Paul Reubens by way of misdirection in Matt Wolf’s ...
The New York Times

Pee-wee’s Legacy: A Network of Ambitious Weirdos

Paul Reubens’s performance as Pee-wee Herman gave fans “license to be weird.” At an underground cabaret, he cheered on his community of renegades. Paul Reubens, as seen in the documentary “Pee-wee as ...
Salon

“Pee-wee as Himself” director says working with Paul Reubens was “contentious” and “thrilling”

Even as Reubens wanted to impact kids with TV the way it impacted him, he lost part of himself by having his alter ego pass as a real person. Director Matt Wolf shrewdly recounts Reubens’ life and his ...
NPR

'Pee-wee as Himself' is a portrait of a private man and his public alter ego

In 1986, one of the most unusual and iconic kids' TV shows debuted. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE THEME") PAUL REUBENS: (As Pee-wee Herman) Hey. CYNDI LAUPER: (Singing) Come in and pull ...
Variety

‘Pee-wee as Himself’ Review: The Late Paul Reubens Opens Up — When He Doesn’t Close Up — in an Expansive Portrait

Matt Wolf's two-part documentary gives the man behind Pee-wee Herman a platform to come out of the closet, but doesn't mask the tension between the filmmaker and a subject with understandable trust ...