‘Pee-Wee As Himself’ reveals the person behind the persona

Paul Reubens in <em>Pee-Wee As Himself. </em>

The new HBO documentary Pee-Wee As Himself isn’t the boilerplate Hollywood profile you think it is. You get the biographical details you expect – how young avant-garde artist Paul Ruebens created the persona of Pee-Wee Herman, and the meteoric rise and fall that followed. But you also get a sense of what it cost Reubens to insist that Pee-Wee wasn’t simply a persona, but in fact a real person. It’s streaming now on Max.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Go to Source
Author: Glen Weldon

Dance with Tom Hiddleston through ‘The Life of Chuck’

Tom Hiddleston in <em>The Life of Chuck</em>.

Stephen King’s work has often contemplated the inevitability of death. But his latest adaptation, The Life of Chuck is a life-affirming film that challenges the cynic in everyone. It has a big cast including Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill, and Nick Offerman. The film was directed and written for the screen by Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass).

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Go to Source
Author: Linda Holmes

Trump’s To-Undo List

1. Cut FEMA flood budget. Make Bezos send wet places salad spinners to dry out stuff. 2. No more brown or yellow M&M’s. Low I.Q., emotionally unstable.

Go to Source
Author: Patricia Marx

Money buys love or something like it in ‘Materialists’

Dakota Johnson in <em>Materialists. </em>

Should you date for love or financial security? That’s the central premise of the new movie Materialists. It stars Dakota Johnson at the center of a love triangle with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, and is directed by Celine Song (Past Lives).

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

Go to Source
Author: Linda Holmes