Get Your Reps In: Pee-wee, Meet PAM CUT

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

Since this is the final Reps column of 2023, it’s time to start workshopping those 2024 resolutions. Here’s an idea: Start each day a little more like Pee-wee Herman.

Sure, society prevents us from owning ornate playhouses without jobs, as Herman appears to in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). And yes, physics prevents us from having Rube Goldberg machines assemble our pancakes and eggs.

But there’s something to be said for waking up as Pee-wee does every morning: deriving childlike joy from a daily routine, practicing dental hygiene no matter how oversized the toothbrush, eating our chosen breakfast, and wearing exactly what we want. It is, in its zany way, a recipe for a simple kind of happiness.

Now, might everything go to hell once we leave the house? Sure. So when Francis steals that beloved bicycle, necessitating a “Big Adventure” full of lightly surrealist Americana directed by 25-year-old Tim Burton, just roll with it.

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure screens Dec. 21 at PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater. Its sequel, Big Top Pee-wee (1988), plays the next night, followed by Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special (1988) on Dec. 23. Be sure to tell ‘em Large Marge sent ya.

ALSO PLAYING:

Academy: The Hateful Eight (2015), Dec. 22-28. Elf (2003), Dec. 22-28. Cinema 21: The Room (2003), Dec. 22. Clinton: The Big Lebowski (1998), Dec. 21-24. The Snow Queen (1986), Dec. 27. Hollywood: Beauty and the Boss (1932), Dec. 21. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Dec. 22-24. Rare Exports (2010), Dec. 23-24. Die Hard (1988), Dec. 24. Living Room: Beetlejuice (1987), Dec. 21. Tomorrow Theater: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Dec. 22.