There is a universe of genre-bending movies that blur art, fiction, documentary, and everything in between—From Nathan Fielder to Pee Wee Herman.

Episode Notes On this week’s show, the secret word is: Pee-wee. Dana, Steve, and Julia discuss the new documentary Pee-wee as Himself.

Commentary: 'Pee-wee as Himself' looks at Paul Reubens' legacy, but it's also a reminder of a unique era in pop culture that shaped a generation.

Paul Reubens, the actor who famously starred as Pee-wee Herman in the 1980s, did not tell the director of his documentary that he was dying from cancer.

Paul Reubens, who starred in the film "Pee-wee’s Big Adventure" and on the TV series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse," died in 2023 after a six-year struggle with cancer that he kept private. He was 70.

As much as the documentary is exhaustive, it’s probably not the last word from Reubens. In “Pee-wee as Himself,” Wolf shows a huge warehouse where Reubens’ collections are stored.

When filmmaker Matt Wolf begin conversations with Paul Reubens about a documentary — one that included his alter ego Pee-wee Herman — “it was clear there could be a power struggle ...