Beauty Is Embarrassing
An artist who crafted puppets for Pee-Wee will never stop chasing his unique vision.
DIRECTED BY NEIL BERKELEY (USA, Next)
Saturday, April 28, 6 p.m.
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West)
Sunday, April 29, 1:30 p.m.
Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West)
Sunday, May 6, 3:30 p.m.
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West)
For artist Wayne White, there is creative potential in nearly everything. Sticks, oven mitts, a placid landscape painting—no matter what the object, he will find a way to transform it into a substantial work of art. In Beauty Is Embarrassing, White recounts his journey from an ostracized and misunderstood youth in Tennessee, to a job designing and voicing puppets for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Intercutting between a live performance at Largo in Los Angeles, interviews with people like Matt Groening and Mark Mothersbaugh, and current footage of White’s work and home life, the film is an entertaining peek into the workings of a manic but brilliant mind.
As might be expected, the most intriguing parts are the ones that deal with the years White spent making puppets, despite having absolutely no experience with the craft. Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-Wee) adds some of his own recollections of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse‘s nightmarish first season, shot in a small space in Manhattan, with frequent interruptions in filming because of electricity problems.
There is a also great woman behind Wayne, Mimi Pond, an artist in her own right, who can boast of having written the first-ever Simpsons episode. Together, they have raised two children who genuinely aspire to follow in their parents’ footsteps. The doc has a quirky style to match its subject, and though White’s work may not be to everyone’s taste, it is hard to argue that this is what he was born to do—even if the job now involves a second career inserting vulgar phrases into paintings of forests.