A breezily entertaining profile of painter, puppeteer and performer Wayne White, Beauty Is Embarrassing places the kindhearted, foulmouthed subject front and center. Intercutting scenes from a live show that’s equal parts stand-up routine, concert and career-retro, Neil Berkeley’s doc traces White’s life from small-town Southern boy to creative force on Pee-wee’s Playhouse to post-Hollywood contentment as purveyor of repurposed paintings. Lettering off-color slogans above dime-store canvasses, the now-middle-aged White claims to be breaking down barriers in the humorless art world; it’s too bad that the film doesn’t explore this idea in depth, taking the hilarious brilliance of the painter’s creations simply as a given.
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