"Stutz" is an emotional recovery through Hill's private therapy sessions, with the artistic freedom that comes with transparency about the process of making it. At its outset, Stutz's film is intriguing but claustrophobic; a lot in his head. The editing is so distracting, it seems to cut on Stutz after every sentence, jumping between two similar angles so that you are aware of the edits. Meanwhile use Hill's Errol MorrisThe Interrotron Camera asked Hill to ask rhetorical questions that we obviously know he's asked before, such as "So what are the tools?" The film's premise that Hale is the detective, a twist on the therapist and patient dynamic, begins to feel static.
But then Hale got honest with us, with himself, and with Stutz. We learned about 25 minutes into the film that we were watching a fake set made to look like Stutz's office, and treated to a green screen background, for a time-adjusted shoot that was not one, but took place over several months. Even Hale's hair is fake, with a wig that hides the shorter cut underneath which he wants to hide for consistency. Black and white breaks to show us everything in supporting colours, before returning to the monochromatic warmth of Christopher Blauvelt's cinematography. Editing lets the footage breathe for a longer period of time, and the Interrotron footage of Hill and Stutz talking to the camera creates the natural flow as it should. The film answers the question, "How do you make a documentary about your therapist?" By trusting intuition, and embracing the nuances of the creation process—some choices and variations here are more effective than others. But the lack of autonomy when crafting is liberating, and it's especially poignant how Hill allows that to inform his entire approach.
As a formal experiment by an actor whose filmmaking talents were only the latest chapter in his Hollywood story, the documentary offers a poignant reflection on Jonah Hill, The Star. Without specifically mentioning film projects or others' names, he shares his sense of self during success, and how self-esteem has remained elusive. His body weight increased with stress and anxiety. At one point in "Stutz," he's holding up a huge piece of cardboard about his 14-year-old self, which he calls "unwanted to the world." All the while, the singing voice of Mason Ramsey—yes, the viral young country singer—was placed within Emile Mosseri's piano compositions, as if Ramsey were the voice of Hill's inner child, rambling through an expanded headspace.
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