Part art house film, part documentary, Phil Stutz symbolizes the increasing presence of mental health in popular culture.
It’s a documentary filled with practical tools designed to create immediate changes, examples of platonic male love and vulnerability, and sweet banter between a therapist and his patient.
Jonah Hill directed and produced this project to share the tools of his therapist, Phil Stutz. Beginning in Stutz’s office, Hill flips the therapist/patient by asking the questions
The documentary is chopped together with quick edits, shot entirely in black and white. Hill evades personal questions to redirect the focus onto Stutz, leaving their conversation with an unnatural flow.
We learn about how the childhood death of Phil Stutz’s little brother made him the emotional caretaker for his parents and eventually led him toward therapy.
He breaks for a moment to take his Parkinson’s medication and rest.
About 30 minutes into the film, the two leave his office to sit side by side in the waiting room. Switching to full color, Hill reveals his struggles in making the documentary. Letting the audience in on the movie-making process, Jonah removes his wig and shows us the greenscreen behind him – measures the crew took to hide the two years it’s taken to film the documentary.
In coming clean about the process, Hill demonstrates the power of vulnerability that the film is trying to encourage. “You can’t move forward without being vulnerable… you’re letting the world know you need help and [you’re] welcoming the help,” replies Stutz.
They continue their mock session, diving into the tools using diagrams and personal examples to demonstrate their relevance.
Through their own tragedies and shortcomings, Hill and Stutz are able to relate and bond further. The film is an example of how everyone needs work. It doesn’t matter if you’ve won an Oscar or created a toolbox for others to increase their well-being, you can always find strength in vulnerability.
The Tools
- Life Force:
- Your life force is your well-being, it guides you when you’re lost – leading you to your passions
- Your life force is illustrated by a pyramid split into three levels. At the base is your physical body, the middle is your relationships with others, and at the top is your relationship with yourself.
- Exercise is the first and most reliable step toward increasing your life force. This is not exercising to reach a physical goal, this is an intentional movement to increase dopamine and give you an immediate sense of well-being.
- Part X:
- Part X is pain, uncertainty, and constant work – it is unavoidable.
- It is the voice in our heads telling us we can’t. It can fuel self-doubt, procrastination, and avoidance, among other things.
- Giving this force a name helps you fight it. When this voice tells you, “this is impossible, you don’t have enough energy to do this,” you can recognize Part X and begin to tell it, “no, I will not listen to you today.”
- String of Pearls:
- Each task you complete – getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, cleaning your inbox, comforting your partner – is a pearl. As you go through the day, you add pearls to the string.
- Pearls are imperfect, inside each one is a black dot. Not every task we complete will be perfect, yet we keep adding pearls to the string.
- Accepting this allows us to accept that every black dot is surrounded by a pearl.
- Shadow
- The Shadow is the part of us we choose to hide. It is the version of ourselves we bury and try to deny.
- Confronting the Shadow allows us to integrate them into our lives.
- To begin, visualize a time when you were rejected. Now, ask this version of yourself how they feel about the way you’ve treated them.
- Then ask them what you can do to make up for treating them this way.
- Mostly, we try to forget our Shadow. Often our Shadow feels unloved, and we reinforce this idea by neglecting them. Accepting our shadow reverses this damage.
- The Snapshot
- This is the postcard version of our perfect life, the image that comes to mind with a tagline reading, “I’ll be happy when…”
- This is also called the Realm of Illusion because the Snapshot is nothing more than an idea telling us we are not happy now.
- Active Love
- This visualization technique encourages contentment in the present.
- Begin by opening yourself to the concept of love, taking in the idea of pure unconditional love, let it fill up your body. Then send it out, let it pour from every part of you, and flow into others.
- Radical Acceptance
- Think about yourself, another, or an upcoming event. Find something positive about it, then find something else positive, then something else. At no point can you say anything negative.
- Once you’ve found a list of positive meanings for this thing, put it down and move on for a bit. Let the thing remain positive.
- The Grateful Flow
- Makes us feel surrounded by meaning.
- Begin by closing your eyes and listing four things you’re grateful for, just small things. You could list your morning walks, journal, afternoon coffee, and weekly chats with a friend. Then, prepare to list something else but stop just before you name it. Now, hold onto this feeling of preparing to feel gratitude and allow the feeling to persist – this is the Grateful Flow.
Essie Somma is an artist and freelance writer exploring beauty and difficulty within the human experience. She has been traveling full-time for two years, learning about new places and cultures, and bringing all of her experiences to her work. She feels endlessly grateful for getting to share her work with others.
