Jonah Hill has just announced his new Netflix film,
Stutz
, a documentary film following his relationship with his therapist, Phil Stutz. The 38-year-old actor’s newest film centers around his own struggles with mental health and experiences with therapy as a coping mechanism. His therapist, Stutz, is a world-renowned psychiatrist who has been practicing for over forty years. The film centers on Stutz’s “Tools”’ of visualization exercises to help aid in therapy. It seems that the film will be a mixture of Hill’s experience with Stutz, but also delving deep into Stutz himself and his experience practicing psychology.
Hill has been in the acting industry for decades. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, having show business present in his day-to-day life. The actor’s mother was a costume designer and stylist, and his father was a tour accountant for the band Guns n’ Roses. His upbringing may have contributed to his early start in Hollywood. Hill is well-known for his comedic roles in teenage films, in which he frequently portrayed the nerdy sidekick, seen in his work on
Superbad
. The trailer of
Stutz
suggests that these roles were a point of contention for Hill, and greatly damaged his self-image and mental health. “I was this wildly insecure kid,” he says in the trailer, holding a cardboard cutout of himself as a teenager. “The work has been accepting and feeling that it’s great to be this person.”
Hill has come far from the smaller films of his youth; however, starring in iconic films such as Scorsese’s
The Wolf of Wall Street
, Miller’s
Moneyball
, Phillips’
War Dogs
as well as his iconic role of Schmidt in
21 Jump Street
and
22 Jump Street
. Hill’s career has been nothing but successful. In total, his resume boasts an impressive 51 films, and his IMDB lists 66 total credits to his name.
Stutz
will not be Hill’s directorial debut, however. Hill previously wrote and directed the film
Mid90s
, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and then was distributed publicly by A24 in 2018. The film was inspired by Hill’s own coming-of-age experiences living during the 1990s in Los Angeles. Critics received the film positively, stating that it showed promise for Hill’s future endeavors.
Stutz
will work to break down damaging stigmas around mental health. The film is unique in its approach to the topic in that mental health is the main subject, not just an underlying theme. The conversation is more important now than ever: shocking numbers of people are reporting lower qualities of emotional health in the wake of COVID-19, reporting increases in anxiety, stress, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore,
Stutz
stands in a unique position to challenge ideals of toxic masculinity and the stereotypes prevalent in relation to men’s mental health struggles. Hill and Stutz work together to break these ideals and destigmatize getting help and partaking in therapy, especially for men. In the trailer, Hill states that his life “has gotten immeasurably better” due to his therapy with Stutz, and “ if it worked for [him], maybe it will work for other people.”
This summer, Hill announced that he will refrain from attending promotional events for
Stutz
due to the increasing amounts of panic attacks that are triggered by these public events. In a letter to his fans, he stated, “I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public-facing events.”
Stutz
is the kind of documentary that viewers need. It is a refreshing and innovative film, different from what is currently gracing our screens. Hill feels that the purpose of the film is to give others struggling with anxiety and mental health hardships new tools to deal with these issues, acting as a form of therapy itself.
Stutz
becomes available for streaming on Netflix on Nov. 14.