Review of Stutz

 

Surprisingly thoughtful and enjoyable black and white documentary movie about a youngish film-maker's relationship with his aging, Parkinson-crippled therapist, the eponymous Stutz. Some odd filming - the set looks like a therapist's room, but it's made clear to us that it's a set, as is also the case with the bedroom to which the therapist sometimes retires.

Two things stayed with me. First, Stutz's insistence that he wanted therapy to give people benefits right away - he doesn't hold to the "worse before it gets better" school of therapy, and he wants to give his patients tips and tricks (he calls them tools)to make them feel better right away - that's why the film-maker loves him so much. Second, he provides a pyramid model of human needs (a bit like the Maslow hierarchy, but simpler). The bottom is the body - you have to be right with your body, so eat well and exercise if you want your mind to be right. Obvious, but it bears saying. The middle is other people - you need to be right in your relationships with others, so fix things - again, obvious but still good. And the top level is yourself, you need to be right with yourself, and - he says - you address that by writing. 

So I started doing the morning pages thing that Ruth used to do with Marcus and Carly years ago, and I write three pages as early in the morning as I can. Just stream of consciousness, no editing or pre-thinking...and it really is amazing.