Tim Burton’s debut feature feels a little bit like a filmmaker finding his footing. At the same time, it’s a trial by fire for Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman as they brought their creation, the capricious Pee-Wee Herman, to the big screen. It paid off, of course, cementing Pee-Wee as an icon of character comedy and a mainstay of American children’s programming. Depending on your history with the character, you could find in PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE a constant, dull, childish annoyance or a charming work of self-aware bliss.

“Things You Shouldn’t Understand, Things You Couldn’t Understand: A Love Letter to the Cast of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” by Sohpie Durbin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/01/07/things-you-shouldnt-understand-things-you-couldnt-understand-a-love-letter-to-the-cast-of-pee-wees-big-adventure/

“I Lived It: The Joy of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” by Alex Kies for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/01/07/i-lived-it-the-joy-of-pee-wees-big-adventure/

“Pee-wee Herman- Unedited Interview (Big Adventure) 1985 [Reelin' In The Years Archives]”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4X4KbsLuzY

#OtherProgramming #35mm

This film was presented at the Trylon by the Cult Film Collective: https://cultfilmcollective.com/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Breakfast Machine" by Danny Elfman from the PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE soundtrack..

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 261: PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985)

3:35 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:11 - Our mileage with Pee-Wee

18:01 - Unpacking what the joke is

29:21 - When the nuance started to hit

42:23 - The disappearing “character” in comedy

45:30 - When the bits go on too long

49:51 - Our favorite bits

55:40 - The Junk Drawer

59:24 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 1985

1:01:32 - Cody’s Noteys: IMDB’s Dig and Then Search (shared cast and crew trivia)

Trylove

Episode 261: PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985)

You’ve seen movies like Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1996 directorial debut, HARD EIGHT. In fact, if you called it part of the PULP FICTION (1994) neo-noir craze, you wouldn’t be wrong. Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) is an avuncular elder hustler who takes John (John C. Reilly) and Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) under his wing, keeping new blood small-timer Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson) at bay while he sets up a better life for the young lovebirds. When things go south, Sydney goes to extreme measures to preserve the fiction he’s built so he can stay the person he thinks he is – the person he wants John and Clementine to see.

In this Dry Run discussion, we compare and contrast different takes about what HARD EIGHT is trying to ‘say,’ if anything, and the value of a frictionless story if it’s competently told.

“Meet Sydney: On Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight (1996)” by MH Rowe for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/01/14/meet-sydney-on-paul-thomas-andersons-hard-eight-1996/

Get tickets to “THE FIFTEENTH FILM NOIR FESTIVAL: NEO-NOIR” (Winter 2024 at the Trylon and the Heights Theater): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/neo-noir/

#NoirFestival #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Sydney’s Work Walk” by Jon Brion and Michael Penn from the HARD EIGHT soundtrack.

Episode 262: HARD EIGHT (1996)

The Trylon Cinema is a treasure of the Minneapolis arts landscape. Honestly, we just hope that hearing the four of us discuss the movies we've seen there makes you want to see a movie there, too. https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast

Not officially affiliated with or endorsed by the Trylon Cinema or Take-Up Productions.

Trylove

Popular tracks