Stutz — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
I usually don’t take the time to write reviews about Documentaries, because I typically don’t have enough to say. I either seem to love the story or am uninterested and since it’s all real life, it’s hard to comment on or criticize them. Stutz is one of the latest Documentaries to hit Netflix and it’s honestly one of the best and most eye-opening ones I’ve seen in a while. In concept, this film may sound pretty boring, but if you let it just wash over you, it’s pretty remarkable. Here’s why Stutz moved me.
Directed by Jonah Hill and also including himself, Stutz tells the story of his real-life therapist, Phil Stutz. Flipping the script and being the one interviewing his own therapist and breaking his life down, Jonah ends up putting himself through a new form of therapy in the process. I was blown away by where this film goes, especially since it’s basically an hour and a half of conversations between the two of them. It doesn’t take place in one sitting, but the entire film is essentially one big therapy session in itself. Jonah Hill has always made me laugh as an actor and then evolved into a great dramatic actor, but I grew a new love for him when he directed Mid90s. His direction work on that was great and this film cements him as one of my favourite celebrities out there.
I don’t want to give anything away in terms of how it all plays out, but I will say that something happens roughly 30 minutes into the film that took me off guard. Once this moment happens, the entire narrative of the story takes a bit of a turn and becomes much more relaxed. This sucked me into the film more and I couldn’t look away. This isn’t scripted in the least, but how many insightful and meaningful things are said throughout this film may make you rethink that. These two are wonderful together and I couldn’t get enough of them.
In the final moments of the film, I found myself in tears, simply due to the fact that I wasn’t expecting anything more than just two guys talking to each other. It almost becomes profound. Jonah is someone who has been through therapy with Phil for many years for many different reasons, but as I always like to say, I fall in love with films that I can’t relate to. I’ve never been someone who has had deep depression or ever thought about wanting to talk to a therapist, and I still don’t feel that way, but this film gave me that side of things I hadn’t really seen before and I can’t even explain how that made me feel. Stutz is a fantastic Documentary and it made my heart full. I highly recommend checking this one out.
Rating: 5/5
Check out the trailer below:
