As Pee-Wee Herman, Paul Reubens delighted generations of children through his series Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and movies like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Big Top Pee-Wee, and Pee-Wee‘s Big Holiday. Meanwhile, on late night talk shows and his sold-out stage show, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, he awed adults, by making them feel like kids again. But who was the man behind the bowtie?
Directed by Matt Wolf, Pee-Wee as Himself is a two-part documentary that features in-depth interviews with Reubens and friends, looking back on his life, his loves, his work, and on the scandals that repeatedly stalled his career. The trailer above addresses the trepidation Reubens had in surrendering his story to the control of Wolf’s vision for the documentary. While this conflict between filmmaker and subject is at the core of Pee-Wee as Himself, the resulting doc is the closest fans can come to understanding the late, great Reubens.
In Mashable’s review out of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, I cheered, “Pee-wee as Himself is not a simple love letter to the iconic character or Reubens. That would suggest Wolf goes easy on either, fawning over them without reservation. This is something greater.”
And you can see all that it is when Pee-Wee as Himself comes to streaming next month.
How to watch: Pee-Wee as Himself: Part One debuts May 23 at 8:00-9:40 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max. Part Two will follows at 9:40-11:20 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max.
