''Pee-wee as Himself'' is a 2025 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

series directed and produced by Matt Wolf. It follows the life and career of actor and comedian

Paul Reubens Paul Reubens (; ; August 27, 1952 – July 30, 2023) was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman. Born in Peekskill, New York and raised in both Oneonta, New York and Sarasota, Flo ...

, best known for portraying the character

Pee-wee Herman Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an ...

. It was released on May 23, 2025, on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

and

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

Premise

''Pee-wee as Himself'' explores the life and career of actor

. In the documentary, Reubens

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

publicly as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

in interviews taped before his death in 2023. Reubens' sexuality had been discussed by certain outlets in the context of his 2002 arrest, though he had not publicly come out at that point; in the film, he notes that at various times in his life he had been in and out of

the closet ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometimes ...

Production

In March 2021, it was announced Matt Wolf would direct a documentary revolving around

for

HBO Documentary Films HBO Documentary Films is an American production and distribution company and a division of the cable television network HBO that produces non-fiction feature films and miniseries. The division releases between 10 and 15 documentaries per year fo ...

, with Josh Safdie and

Benny Safdie Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986) is an American filmmaker, film editor, and actor. He and his elder brother, Josh, have directed the films '' Heaven Knows What'' (2014), '' Good Time'' (2017), and '' Uncut Gems'' (2019). Transitioning ...

set to executive produce under their

Elara Pictures Elara Pictures is an American independent film production and television production company founded by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein and Sebastian Bear-McClard. They have produced such films as '' Heaven Knows What'' (2014), '' G ...

banner, and

Emma Tillinger Koskoff Emma Tillinger Koskoff (born 1972) is an American film producer. She is best known for her collaborations with Martin Scorsese, including acting as a producer on his films '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (2013), ''Silence'' (2016) and '' The Irishma ...

to produce. In November 2024, the project was titled ''Pee-wee as Himself''. Wolf spent over 40 hours interviewing Reubens, and was given access to the actor's large collection of photographs and video footage. The film includes a final message from Reubens, recorded the day before his death; he discusses his 1991 and 2002 arrests and the damage they did to his reputation, blaming

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

for the tabloid fallout in both cases.

Episodes

Release

It had its world premiere at the

2025 Sundance Film Festival The 2025 Sundance Film Festival took place in person from January 23 to February 2, 2025, in Park City, Utah, Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, and online from January 30 to February 2. The first selection lineup was announced on December 11, ...

on January 23, 2025.

Reception

Critical reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 100% approval rating based on 30 critic reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Blessed to have the late Paul Reubens feature in candid conversation, ''Pee-wee as Himself'' is a revelatory glimpse at the complicated man behind a beloved comic creation."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 82 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{HBO documentaries 2020s American documentary television series Documentary films about actors Television series by Home Box Office HBO original programming