BEFORE: Being on break from movies for 10 days or so allowed me to catch up on some TV, once Christmas with my family in Massachusetts was over. When I wasn't writing my 2017 wrap-up or figuring out what movies to watch in early 2018, I was watching TV. For some shows, I'm two months behind, like I just got to the Simpsons Halloween episode last week. But I'm current on Jeopardy and all the late-night talk shows I watch, plus I started the new season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" and I'm working my way through "The Gifted" and "Inhumans", though I'm not sure why I'm bothering with them. Plus my wife and I are current on "Top Chef" and only 3 episodes behind on "South Park", "The Orville", and "Iron Chef Showdown". I caught up on "Ginormous Food", and I can tackle the new "Man vs. Food" next, and I even started on the second season of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", though it can't possibly match Season 1.
But wouldn't you know it, here comes January 1 and I'm back on movie detail, so those 30-40 episodes of "Food Paradise" and "Carnival Eats" on the DVR will have to wait a little longer. Now that I have my starting point for 2018, I can't wait to dive in. But, you may ask, why HERE, why THIS film? Good question. Mostly it's because it links to only ONE other film on my list, so January 1 is a great time to watch it - I don't require that there's an actor link between the last film of one year and the first of the next, that would be madness. Nope, new year, new chain, and it starts here. It also helps to know that in exactly 30 linked films from here, I can be at the film I want to start February with. The 2018 schedule after March 25 is all still TBD.
Also, as I mentioned yesterday in the recap, 2017 was the year I took Netflix seriously, it really helped me catch up on most of the animated films of 2015 and 2016 that I hadn't seen yet, because they haven't aired on cable yet. But since I found them on Netflix, along with a bunch of geek-themed documentaries, it seemed like the place to be. But I'm still not completely sold on the concept of Netflix, and it's not just because I like reading the credits, and Netflix INSISTS on playing a trailer for another suggested film instead of letting all those people who worked very hard on a film's production get their due. (Really, Netflix, you should give credit-watchers the option to toggle this "helpful" service OFF.) I don't like being told WHEN to watch a movie, I greatly prefer to burn a film to DVD and watch it on my own schedule, which I obsessively plan. Since I know that any film on Netflix is there for a limited amount of time, I can't help but feel that a film's time on the service could end at any time, so the clock is always ticking. I'm planning to watch 10 more films on Netflix during January, and as of tonight they're all still available, but a film I had scheduled for late February has disappeared - now I have to either re-program that slot, or find another way to watch that film. So the "convenience" of watching a film on Netflix leads to several other inconveniences - not the least of which is that I watch through the Playstation, and the controller/remote just doesn't reach across the room to the recliner.
But symbolically, this is a great choice for the first film of the year, because I do plan to watch more films on Netflix in 2018. Also it's got the word "Holiday" in the title, and the year starts with a holiday. Yes, I know there are two different definitions for "holiday", and this film is really about a vacation holiday, not a calendar holiday, but I'm still going to take it.
THE PLOT: A fateful meeting with a mysterious stranger inspires Pee-Wee Herman to take his first-ever holiday in this epic story of friendship and destiny.
AFTER: If you don't know who Pee-Wee Herman is, no one can really blame you - the character hadn't appeared in a film for 28 years, after the actor was forced to retire him due to a scandal. But that scandal seems relatively tame now, I won't re-hash it here but you can look it up on the Wikipedia. And after the terrible, horrible, no-good year of sex scandals (and political scandals) we just had, and in the spirit of New Year's Day, I put forward that there IS a way back from cultural exile. You just have to apologize publicly, get off the radar for a decade or two, and wait for about 87 people to commit acts that are much, much worse. Because THIS actor never drugged anyone without their consent, or touched anyone inappropriately or used his power in the industry to gain favors (that we know of, anyway) he only did something that we all do, just unfortunately in a public place. Which was only a problem since he hosted a kids' show, and as we all know, those people aren't allowed to have relationships or any sexual desires whatsoever, that wouldn't be right.
So if you don't know who this character is, it's understandable - he represents a simpler time, which we called the 1980's, but back then we were all nostalgic for the 1950's for some reason, after "Happy Days" and "American Graffiti" told us that it was the best, greatest time to be alive in America, because everyone wore letterman jackets and drag-raced their cars to the malt shop where they engaged in very innocent kissing with the girls in the poodle skirts. And nothing bad or naughty ever happened. Right. So for a brief time in the 1980's, it was "hip to be square" and nobody was squarer than Pee-Wee Herman - he was so square that he somehow circled around to cool again, which isn't supposed to happen. We knew that he had a Playhouse, with a talking chair (Chairy), a clock (Clocky) and other animated furniture and puppets, and a robot named Conky, who would give him the Secret Word every morning, and for the rest of the day whenever you heard that word you were supposed to scream real loud. A number of humans would come and visit the Playhouse each day, played by prominent character actors, many of whom would go on to be famous later (Laurence Fishburne, S. Epatha Merkerson).
But Pee-Wee himself was the constant, the grounding force in Puppetland, and the show subtly threw in references for the adults that might be watching the show - I famously remember when Pee-Wee had a dance-off with Cowboy Curtis, and after Curtis showed Pee-Wee his dance, he said, "OK, I showed you mine, now you show me yours!" That sort of innuendo was aimed exactly at the right spot, which was over the heads of children, who of course wouldn't get the reference. So many adults started watching the show (myself included) to figure out where all the adult jokes were. Still, the actor Paul Reubens remained something of a mystery, like is he for real, is he in on the joke, is he gay, is he straight, or is he just some kind of ventriloquist dummy that somehow came to life, Pinocchio-style?
Well, he's back with a Netflix film, and if you're looking for any answers or insight, you're out of luck. But we do find out that he lives in the town of Fairville (located in some unnamed state in the U.S., so it might be the same as yours) which does seem a bit like a town that's stuck in the 1950's, with those letterman jackets and milkshakes down at the corner diner. Pee-Wee works at the diner, and with perhaps a nod to "The Truman Show", he's never left Fairville. Why would he, everything he needs or wants is there - but this opens up the possibility that the Playhouse only exists in Pee-Wee's mind, that it's his happy place when he needs to get away from the reality of Fairville. Logically therefore, Fairville should be like Twin Peaks, with a dark underbelly and a ton of secrets, only it's not that kind of film.
I wish I could say this is a great film, but in terms of story quality, it's probably somewhere between "Big Top Pee-Wee" and the superior "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure". Basically a stranger comes to town, forms an instant friendship with Pee-Wee based on their mutual love of classic candy and goofy catchphrases, and then invites Pee-Wee to his birthday party in New York, taking place in five days. Our hero then faces the difficult decision to leave town for the first time - then the rest is just a madcap criss-crossing of the U.S. meeting all kinds of strange characters, played by a bunch of character actors making cameos.
There are a ton of pieces here that never add up to a coherent whole. Pee-Wee hitches a ride with a novelty salesman and visits a snake farm, run by people who love bad puns. He meets a rich lady who also loves tiny cars, and a mountain man who sings karaoke. A trio of lady bank robbers use his car to escape the cops, then tie him up in a motel room while they have a pillow fight. He spends time with the Amish, possibly the only people squarer than he is. And he finally makes it to New York, where he eats pizza (for the first time!) and rides in the strange underground train. And through it all, I found myself asking the same questions I did back in the late 80's. Is this guy for real, is he in on the joke, is he gay, is he straight? Because the humor's aimed at exactly the same place that it was back in "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" - a kid can enjoy it on one level, but an adult is going to see things from a different perspective.
Two guys riding on a motorcycle together means something different to an adult than to a kid. Being tied up in a motel room while three women have a pillow fight is an adult voyeur fantasy, perhaps, but a kid's just not going to pick up on that. Same goes for a fear of giant snakes, and now I have to go back and look at the Indiana Jones films and wonder if Indy's fear of snakes is Freudian in some way. But at the end of the day, it just doesn't matter. You can comb through this entire film for clues in the subtext, and end up right back where you started. It's annoying and refreshingly just about a guy who makes a male friend and travels across the country to go to his birthday party.
Just enjoy someone who's so classically retro that it hurts - you damn hipsters can take a lesson from a man who knows how to make a real milkshake, with ice cream, milk and syrup, not your damn soy milk, rice cream and Sriracha or Gochujang. By all rights, the catchphrase here that SHOULD catch on is saying, "I'm gonna let you let me run..." when you want to get out of a conversation.
Sarring Paul Reubens (last heard in "The Smurfs 2"), Joe Manganiello (last seen in "Justice League"), Jessica Pohly, Alia Shawkat (last seen in "The To Do List"), Stephanie Beatriz (last heard in "Ice Age: Collision Course"), Hal Landon Jr. (last seen in "Eraserhead"), Diane Salinger (last seen in "Alice"), Brad William Henke (last seen in "Fury"), Patrick Egan (last seen in "Butch and Sundance: The Early Days"), Tara Buck, Richard Riehle (last seen in "Hard Time: Hostage Hotel"), Leo Fitzpatrick, Christopher Heyerdahl, Jordan Black, Monica Horan, Brian Palermo (last seen in "Shrink"), Josh Meyers (last seen in "Brüno"), Paul Rust, Frank Collison (last seen in "Hesher"), Lynne Marie Stewart, Lindsay Hollister (last seen in "Get Smart"), Cooper Huckabee, Darryl Stephens, Anthony Alabi, Sonya Eddy, Dionne Gipson, Katherine VanderLinden, with cameos from Charlie Robinson, Nicole Sullivan, David Arquette (last seen in "Hamlet 2")
RATING: 5 out of 10 breakfast garnishes
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