THE MAN BEHIND THE BOW TIE

In a documentary filmed just before his death, Paul Reubens reflects on the life he led when the cameras weren't rolling

- - BY RICH JUZWIAK

ON JULY 31, 2023, MATT WOLF RECEIVED NEWS that no documentarian wants to hear: the subject of his uncompleted film was dead. This was no mere talking head. It was a man who left an indelible mark on pop culture, whose manic persona, gray suit, and bow tie helped define the 1980s. On a personal note, says Wolf, it was someone who “changed who I was through his art.” The subject was Paul Reubens, the actor best known as Pee-wee Herman, who had been diagnosed with cancer six years prior.

“Paul was very preoccupied with the film being finished before he died,” says Wolf, whose two-part HBO documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, premiered at Sundance to rapturous praise and is now streaming on Max. Though Reubens never said his death was imminent, or even told Wolf of his cancer diagnosis, his legacy was clearly on his mind. “Every day I woke up saying, ‘You must rise to the occasion. Do not drop the ball,’” says Wolf, whose previous documentary subjects include the musician Arthur Russell and the Biosphere 2.

Reubens was, according to Wolf, intense, complex, and “the funniest and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.” He was also a “resistant subject.” That resistance plays out onscreen and distinguishes Pee-wee as Himself from other celebrity bio-docs. This one tells, but it also shows. The telling comes via recollections from Wolf’s talking heads—drawn from 40 hours of interviews with Reubens, plus friends, family, and colleagues—as well as Reubens’ career archive, including 1,000 hours of video footage and tens of thousands of images. These take us from Reubens’ early life as a precociously creative child growing up not far from the Ringling Bros. Circus headquarters in Florida, through his work in the improv group the Groundlings, to his career successes: creating and starring in the hit 1985 film