Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016)

Pee-wee: You know I don't want to go 

anywhere, or try anything new.

Not to pile on extra sad with all of our queer legends dying this week but today would've been the one and only Paul Reubens 74th birthday and good god I miss him. It's been three years since he passed but I still think about him all the time -- it probably helps that Pee-wee memorabilia is scattered all over my home. including the holiday cards that I got every year from the man himself in the wake of him reaching out to me after I said some nice things on this very site regarding the above movie. (I don't care if I bring this up too much -- it's the great highlight of my "professional" life.) And his birthday and my birthday especially I think about Paul, because we'd also text each other on those days -- he'd send funny little gifs to me on mine and I'd send him one on his day. I was always too starstruck to be too chatty but he always replied, sincere and grateful. Since Dolly passed this week he's been on my mind too -- not just because of the below photo that made the rounds, but because they were both paragons of decency and humor from my childhood who taught me as much about how to be a good person as any actual human being in my orbit. I fail every day at living up to the standard they set but you know both of them would just giggle and say well get on with it. Being good is an every day effort, but look at the legacies of joy they left. What's better?

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My Top 20 Movies of 2025

A decade or so ago I was doing gigantic elaborate awards every year here that showcased my favorite movies, my favorite performances, and on and on and on... then the last decade happened and I'm lucky I can even get out of bed anymore y'all. Who has that kind of stamina anymore? Not I. Not I! So yes these things -- The Golden Trousers, as I've been calling them since 2007 -- have considerably narrowed. Tis what its. But I do feel proud that both last year and this year I'm at least getting these locked in before I dive head-long into fresh Sundance stuff, which basically marks the start of the next year of movies. (Apologies to the first three weeks of January releases every single year but you know what you did.) I'm doing Sundance virtually again this year but that still means that I'll be mostly off-line while I do that, so it's likely there'll be no MNPP for you starting this Wednesday, lasting about a week. And so it's best I get this done immediately, before that happens! Otherwise who knows, it could be months knowing me. So let us brush off these 2025 concerns as I head into the future, with one last glance back toward the past with 20 of '25s gifts and wonders....

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2025

20 -- SIRAT

19 -- AFTER THE HUNT

-- Read my review here! -- 

18 -- LURKER

-- Read my review here! -- 

17 -- PETER HUJAR'S DAY

-- Read my review here! -- 

16 -- WAKE UP DEAD MAN

15 -- THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

-- Read my review here! -- 

14 -- BLACK BAG

-- Read my review here! -- 

13 -- DUST BUNNY

-- Read my review here! -- 

12 -- THE SECRET AGENT

11 -- MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART 1

10 -- SENTIMENTAL VALUE

9 -- GRIFFIN IN SUMMER

-- Read my review here! -- 

8 -- BUGONIA

-- Read my review here! -- 

7-- THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

6 -- THE HISTORY OF SOUND

-- Read my review here! -- 

5 -- NO OTHER CHOICE

-- Read my review here! -- 

4 -- PILLION

-- Read my review here! -- 

3 -- PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF

-- Read my review here! -- 

2 -- MARTY SUPREME

-- Read my review here! -- 

1 -- ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

-- Read my review here! -- 

----------------------------------

I have like 20 runners-up but fuck it, 

I'm done. Goodbye forever, 2025! 

I Know You're Criterion But What Am I

Criterion said to us that "Yes, the world is depressing right now, so we're gonna do something absolutely wonderful for you," with today's announcement of their December line-up -- Tim Burton's 1985 first film and perhaps his greatest masterpiece Pee-wee's Big Adventure is entering the Collection in 4K on December 16th. Just in time for Christmas! No I checked and Pee-wee's Christmas Special isn't included in the extras -- missed opportunity! But with such an abundant gift on its own terms who cares. I'll admit my first thought upon seeingn this news was, "Dammit I should have gotten to write the essay for that" -- if ever I was gonna write an essay for a blu-ray booklet this would've been the one. If anybody releases Muriel's Wedding without consulting me I'm gonna start setting fires dammit. But what a beautiful way to start a week! Fuck all the negativity in the news -- for at least a few minutes while we greet this. Paul Reubens has always had that effect -- pure magic.

But obviously that's not it for December -- the magic continues with, first and foremost (or rather second and second-most I suppose, after Pee-wee) a four film box-set by the artist Man Ray! Four surrealist shorts from the 1920s titled Le retour à la raison, Emak bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé, this is no doubt related to the big show of Man Ray's art that just opened at The Met here in NYC. I think I saw some of these in film school back in the day but it's been awhile since film school (cough cough turns to dust) so these will no doubt feel new to me. I plan on going to The Met show this upcoming weekend. Love me some Man Ray surrealism. Next up there's Spike Lee's filmed version of David Byrne's American Utopia show that was on Broadway a couple of years back -- I might be one of the few Talking Heads fanatics who really wasn't into American Utopia -- generally people loved it. And I'll no doubt give it another chance at some point.

After that we've got the sweeping 1945 Scottish Highlands love story I Know Where I'm Going! from the geniuses Powell & Pressberger dropping in 4K on December 9th -- I actually can't recall if I've seen this one before or not? I went through a big P&P phase like 20 years ago and binged whatever I could get my hands on so a lot of the ones I haven't seen since then have sorta blended together. Any fans? Next comes Mira Nair's first film Salaam Bombay, which I know for certain I've never seen -- and I'm sure this was in the works well before her spectacular son Zohran Mamdani was set to be NYC's next mayor, but I love the timing anyway! And finally their fifth release for the holiday month is a 4K upgrade of the sparkling comedy masterpiece His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell -- you know, just one of the greatest rom-coms ever made. 

Why Don't You Take a Picture

I've been pushing my review of the Paul Reubens documentary Pee-wee as Himself pretty relentlessly all weekend -- I even posted about it on Instagram, with a little bonus bit you might not want to miss -- but now the time has come to push it here at MNPP. Go read it right here. I'm pretty proud of this one -- I can't overstate the importance of Paul and Pee-wee to being a big part of the brickwork that built up this weirdo standing before you today, and the doc does extremely right by him. Them? Him. If you haven't watched it yet, do! It's on HBO Max (if that's still what it's being called) now.

The Ghost With Even More Most

Extremely happy to say that I enjoyed the hell out of Tim Burton's 36-years-in-the-making Beetlejuice Beetlejuice -- head on over to Pajiba now to read my review now or even better after you've gone to see the movie in the theater yourself. I hope it makes a heap of money this weekend because this is a "legacy sequel" done right. Even if I really hate the term "legacy sequel." The movie might be all over the place but that's totally true to the wacky spirit of the original -- people complained the same thing about the original and yet I have watched that movie enough times to have it memorized from start to finish. Bring on the Winona-ssaince!

A Loner...

... a rebel.

Quote of the Day

"I knew Paul, certainly, and I have a dinner party every year with [photographer] Greg Gorman in L.A. I had it last week and Paul was supposed to be there. He was there every year. [His recent death is] very sad. And he was right up there with Howdy Doody and Lassie in the history of American television, if you ask me. A great gentleman who celebrated the delightful."

-- John Waters spoke to THR today about his forthcoming exhibit at the Academy Museum (god I wanna go so bad) and the above is the sweetness that he had to say about the passing of our beloved friend Paul Reubens -- and seeing as how those two, alongside Vincent Price, make up my holy trinity... well excuse me if I'm crying again. I had been planning on quoting John from earlier in the piece, the very funny bit where he talks about Pink Flamingos airing on TCM recently, but as soon as Paul came up that was the obvious winner. But make sure you go read the whole chat!

Au Revoir, Pee-wee

Been a busy week and now I've got to run off to do something sad slash celebratory -- the Alamo Drafthouse here in NYC is hosting a party / screening of Pee-wee's Big Adventure tonight to celebrate the delivery of a replica of Pee-wee's famous bike that they've had touring the country for the past few weeks. This all was scheduled and I bought my tickets before the godawful loss of Paul Reubens last week and what was going to be a fun night is now something I am lightly dreading. But how could I not go and raise a tumbler of tequila to one of the most important pop culture figures of my life? I will surely post about all of this on Instagram tonight so head on over there if you wanna keep track. If I get any good photos maybe I'll even share them here tomorrow. Have a good night tonight, loners and rebels!

RIP Paul Reubens

I usually avoid doing these since I'm fairly terrible at memorializing pop-culture figures that I cared about in proper (which is to say non-selfish) ways. But I'm going to be doubly terrible at this one because I am fully and utterly devastated right now. To say that Paul Reubens, the man behind Pee-wee Herman, was influential in creating the weirdo typing before you today, is like saying I'm made of molecules. Paul imprinted his sly little smirk onto every single one of those molecules and he sent them on their merry way, from as far back as I can remember. I was 9-years-old when the Playhouse started airing -- I've written about that show a billion times here at MNPP and I wrote a big piece on it for Mashable last fall for its 36th anniversary -- but I'd surely already seen Tim Burton's 1985 movie by then. Whichever came first the takeover was complete and immediate, and even though I didn't get it at the time I surely do now -- in Pee-wee I was seeing something so personal, so aimed straight for me and little boys and girls exactly like me. Those of us who didn't fit in, whose giddiness was a little over-the-top, who day-dreamed and dressed peculiar and found ourselves stuck in ways we couldn't comprehend at the time. Paul saved my life at a transformative moment, showing me how to stay bright and have humor and slip by the bullies even if you couldn't beat them up -- I finally got who I could be, as a person; that there were ways to survive it all and really actually get to be a person. 

And I'm crying too much right now to really do any of this justice -- I'll just add that I wrote a little thing that said some of this stuff when Pee Wee's Big Holiday came out in 2016 and somehow, I have no idea how, Paul saw it. And he sent me a lovely note saying thank you. And I think maybe I died instantaneously and everything since has been hell? It was late 2016 after all! It all makes sense! But for real he wrote that note and then he put me on his Christmas card list and he texted me every year on my birthday to wish me a happy one and to say that this was something I ever came close to comprehending would be deeply false. I have had moments where I felt like I have accomplished things in my life, where I have written something I was proud of or met someone I was a fan of and geeked out about it, but these were the greatest of all of them. I never did and will never wrap my head around the fact that, even in this tiniest of ways, Paul Reubens reached out and made me feel special. After he'd already done so very much for me already. An absolute king, my hero, a wonderful kind and funny man. I love you, Paul. 

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5 Off My Head: Denizens of the Dead

It's the 35th anniversary of one of my lifetime favorite movies, Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. This is the first movie I was allowed to see in the theater without a parent -- I vividly remember my mom dropping me off at the theater and feeling like the biggest grown-up boy in all the land! And even more so whenever they showed Alec Baldwin from the back in those khakis...

Formative khakis! Anyway I've seen this movie more times than I could ever keep track of, and I've posted about it here on the site twice as many, so what is there left to say at this point? Well actually, I found something. This is one of Burton's richest worlds creatively (which is why it remains mind-boggling they still haven't made a sequel) and there's somebody in some small role to fawn over in nearly every frame. We all love Juno and Otho and all the well-known and quoted weirdos -- but what about the bit-parts? Here are five of my faves!

5 Fun Beetlejuice Bit Parts

The dog that kills Adam and Barbara -- Look at that sweet little face! Who'd have guessed that that sweet little face covers up the soul of a cold-blooded murderer? Well that's what the bastard (or perhaps the bitch) is. Just sauntering off as our heroes drown, not a care in the world. I bet that dog leaves a trail of corpses littered in its wake across Winter River, Connecticut. I bet that dog crashed the airplane that killed all those hot dead football players in Juno's office. That dog must be stopped!

Beryl (Adelle Lutz) -- She always makes me think of that picture on the right of a hairless cat. I don't know why. But I hope to pass this brain disease along to as many people as possible a la the curse from The Ring's videotape. 

The Devil Hookers -- I mean, obviously.

The Janitor (Simmy Bow) -- The dead janitor in the hallway of Juno's office who tells the Maitlands about the exorcized souls trapped in limbo is played by the same actor who tells Pee-wee Herman the story of "Large Marge" in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. I love that he's kind of an afterlife exposition delivery system for Tim Burton Movies. Sad / weird side-note: he died before Beetlejuice came out so playing a ghoul was his last role. 

Old Bill (Hugo Stanger) the barber -- I bet y'all thought I would go with one of the smashed-apart weirdos that populate Juno's office right? The flat guy with the tire-tracks or the fairy woman with the slit wrists. Well nope! I feel like Old Bill deserves his moment. The way he says, "Jus... just trim it a little" always makes me laugh for some reason. He died not long after Beetlejuice came out too. A fitting note to end on!

What are your favorite Beetlejuice bits?

I Know He Is But So Am I

This week marked the thirty-sixth anniversary of one of my formatives -- Pee-wee's Playhouse, the Saturday morning kid's show (and from some angles yes "kid" should be in quotation marks) that the genius Paul Reubens created alongside a bunch of his Groundlings pals, first on stage, and then onto CBS. The latter version is the one that matters most to me and I wrote about why over at Mashable today -- click on over to read it. Made ya look!

Justin Theroux Tests Positive... For Gay!

There really is no way to make a thriller about pregnancy without having it compared to Rosemary's Baby, so I appreciate False Positive director John Lee not even trying to obscure the Woodhouse-iness here in the first trailer for the Hulu Original hitting that streamer on June 25th. Starring Broad City super-stah Ilana Glazer as a young woman impregnated by her perfect husband... or was she, dun dun dun??? Justin Theroux wearing preppy sweaters let's you know something is wrong right off the bat...

... but damn if he doesn't make you feel as conflicted about Evil Baby Schemes as John Cassavetes did back in the day. Hey maybe just let them have this one? The baby I mean. Babies are a dime a dozen, but hot husbands don't come along every damn day. Unfortunately for Ilana she's also got a hot OB-GYN (played by Pierce Brosnan) who cannot take his eyes off said same hot husband...

 

That gif somehow feels like the dirtiest gif I have ever made in my entire gif-making life, and I have made some dirty doozies. Anyway I don't want to venture too deep into spoiler territory -- maybe some of you don't want to watch the trailer, which gives away a lot, and me shoving gifs in your face is an affront to your delicate nature? To y'all I apologize but I would simply be derelict in my duties if I didn't share the flashes in said trailer of Theroux making out with shirtless (grand) daddy Pierce Brosnan...

I mean seeing an image of that which a kind reader forwarded is what got me to watch this damn trailer even in the first place! There's your reason to watch the movie. Not that I don't love everybody involved -- besides Ilana Glazer's preternaturally comedic presence in the lead we also have director John Lee, who worked with Glazer on Broad City and has a comedy-directing career going back to his work on the classic Wonder Showzen, a personal all-time fave. Oh and he also directed Pee-wee's Big Holiday, which I adore. This is a person working on my wavelength! Here's the trailer:

False Positive hits Hulu on June 25th. Any thoughts, people?

Besides how you'd allow Justin Theroux to steal your baby, I mean.

Merci Blah Blah, Pee-wee!

I would like to formally apologize to the Safdie Brothers for hating the ever-loving shit out of their last film Uncut Gems, because today they are more than making up for it with the news that they are producing an HBO documentary about personal hero -- hell, personal god -- Paul Reubens. Maybe you call him Pee-wee Herman? You shouldn't, unless he's in the gray suit and red bowtie, but I'm sure he's worked through his issues with being mostly recognized for that character at this point, given how much money I alone have spent on PW merch in my life. 

The doc is already in progress, and Deadline says it will be a "a kaleidoscopic portrait told in two parts" detailing his life BPW (Before Pee-wee) and APW (After Pee-wee, although there is no "After Pee-wee" really, Pee-wee lives forever.) Here's a quote from the man himself:

"I’ve been working with HBO since they were called Home Box Office! I’m honored and excited to continue my long history there. I love HBO, but I’m not going to marry them."

I guess you could say that there are a lot of things we don't know about him, Dottie. Things we wouldn't understand. Things we couldn't understand. Things we shouldn't understand. Kindly this press announcement makes no mention of the ridiculous hubbub that surrounded his 1991 arrest which effectively did kill "Pee-wee" for awhile (robbing me of my beloved Playhouse) although never, not even at the tender easily-embarrassed age I was when that nonsense happened, did it kill Pee-wee for me. It only made me love him more! Paul taught me many things but importantly he taught me jerking off was nothing to be ashamed of, and for that I'll forever be grateful. 

Pics of the Day

I think this is a thing I've said here on the site before but all I want, all I truly want, is for somebody to paint me a painting of The Three Wise Men as portrayed by John Waters, Vincent Price, and Pee-wee Herman. I have the painting in my head but I also have absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever, so for now there it must remain. Anyway today I can satisfy a hint of my cravings with John Waters being this month's cover man for L'Uomo Vogue! Spectacular spectacular! I don't have the interview in English (it's in Italian here, and yes you should read the word "Italian" the way Mary Vivian Pearce pronounces it in Female Trouble -- "I couldn't possibly eat spaghetti -- do I look Eye-tally-in???") but I do have a shot of John standing in front of his bookshelves which is more porn than my body can handle in one sitting. I'm gonna be zooming in on that shot for weeks. Oh and there's some video from his apartment over here too. Lots of close-ups on his outrageous art artifacts. John's living the dream.