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At The Movies With Kasey – The Waynedale News
If you listened to my dad on the radio in the 1990s, it might not surprise you to know that I watched Pee-wee’s Playhouse growing up. My mother was also a fan of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Then, Paul Reubens’s scandals changed everything. A new documentary on HBO Max covers the rise and fall of Pee-wee Herman, using hours of interviews filmed with Paul Reubens before he passed away in 2023.
The Quilters documentary on Netflix.
Reubens was a layered and often contentious person, so director Matt Wolf struggled with him a bit for control of the film. That Wolf includes the tension in their relationship as a frame for the two-part documentary gives insight into the subject and keeps the career retrospective from feeling too celebratory or like a simple case of a once-beloved celebrity trying to clear the air. Although Reubens gets to tell his side, the documentary spends much more time exploring his approach to art and fame and his unusual path to success. The film includes interviews with those close to Reubens, including Debi Mazar, Tim Burton, Lynne Marie Stewart, and Cassandra Peterson, but the focus sticks with Pee-wee Herman and Reubens’s relationship with the persona he created, not suspecting that performance art would take over his entire life.
Pee-wee As Himself presents a difficult final statement from a complicated artist, adding depth to Pee-wee that I never knew was there. It’s a fascinating production, well-crafted and compellingly edited.
Pee-wee as Himself was directed by Matt Wolf. It runs 405 minutes and is rated TV-MA.
On Netflix, the short documentary, The Quilters, profiles a group of men in a maximum-security prison in Missouri, volunteering their time to design and sew quilts for foster children in the surrounding counties. Using interviews and plenty of footage of the men at work, the documentary does a beautiful job showcasing the diligent work and the humanity of the quilters, without tripping into cliches of prison redemption narratives. Director Jenifer McShane uses family photos and gaps in interviews to imply backstories and struggles as the crew tries to keep focused on making the quilts.
When one of the quilters gets into trouble and is removed from the program with a deadline for a quilt looming, the team steps up. This brief arch infuses tension into a narrative mostly focused on people over plot. In just a half-hour, the film highlights the impact restorative justice programs can have on communities and on the incarcerated people involved, while giving a meaningful glimpse into the lives of the quilters.
The Quilters was directed by Jenifer McShane. It runs 33 minutes and is rated TV-14.
Over on Peacock, Steven Soderbergh’s overlooked spy thriller, Black Bag, has arrived for streaming. In the film, British intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is tasked with investigating the leak of a secret software program. One of the suspects is his wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), and the pair invite the others—Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), and Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris)—over for a series of dinner parties, punctuating George’s secret operation with interpersonal drama and spy-vs-spy thrills.
I found the relationship drama far more interesting than the main plot about finding the traitor. In the early scenes, the film feels like a good play, with pointed dialogue over the dinner party setting up intriguing characters and their secrets. The production continues the chic vibe of that party scene by contrasting dimly lit, elegant homes with sterile, fluorescent offices. The performances throughout sustain the tension, but the real selling point is the dynamic between Fassbender and Blanchett who play off each other to create a witty, enigmatic relationship that reminded me a bit of Charade.
This week, I also happened to watch Soderbergh’s horror movie from earlier this year, Presence. It’s an interesting feature that puts a spin on a haunted house story by using the camera as the ghost’s perspective. Although the film had a heavy-handed ending and less sophisticated storytelling than Black Bag, doing this double feature was fun.
Black Bag was written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh. It runs 93 minutes and is rated R.
Meanwhile, on Netflix, Fear Street: Prom Queen continues the series of movies inspired by R.L. Stine with a slasher film inspired by the 1980s. Prom queens are a big cliche in horror movies and I was doubtful if there was any reason whatsoever for this film to be made. “Two stars!” my husband exclaimed as the opening credits rolled. He was wrong, this film is worth just one. It has a campy tone and an excellent soundtrack, but the plotting and character development are practically nonexistent. Some gory special effects might be fun for fans of slasher movies, but there is no reason I can think of not to watch Prom Night or Carrie instead.
Fear Street: Prom Queen was written by Matt Balmer, Donald McLeary and R.L. Stine and directed by Matt Palmer. It runs 91 minutes and is rated R.
She is proud to be a Ft. Wayne native, a graduate of Homestead HS, Ball State University & Miami University.She became involved with journalism editor-in-chief for her high school magazine. She authors the “At The Movies with Kasey Butcher” review.
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