Is your mother worried? Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?
Jonah Hill, actor famous for playing sexless butterballs, has also been famous at this BeachGrit since he discovered the profound glories of surfing, some few years ago, and thus staked his claim as heir to Miki Dora’s Malibu Throne. There was an attempt, earlier, to have him on the on-again-off-again podcast Dirty Water and a back and forth that ended him wishing this surf journalist “I hope you enjoy the journey of learning to be funny.”
As salient today as it was then.
Apt.
Hill, in any case, has continued his stratospheric rise in both surfing and pop culture, signing on to play the Grating Dead’s Jerry Garcia in an up and coming biopic, transitioning to electric trucks for local longer board sessions, signing on to play golfer John Daly in another biopic.
Dating surf instructors, breaking up, dating others in the surf.
Releasing his directed and starred in Stuz on Netflix though bravely following Filipe Toledo’s lead and refusing to promote it publicly.
The film is an ostensible vehicle to share the wisdom he has learned from years of therapy with noted shrink Phil Stutz and before commenting upon felt it my duty, as a surf journalist, to watch the entire thing instead of just the trailer.
Hard yards.
And so, today, I sat down to do the work.
The film opens with Hill and Phil Stutz in a room, black and white, therapist explaining his philosophy, “tools,” Hill responding and reacting, attempting to deflect from himself, insisting this is a story about Stutz.
It quickly becomes a film about Hill.
There are bobs, weaves, peeks behind the fourth wall and purposeful tweaks of that fourth wall. Honestly, I’d image there is something to the overall message. Oh, it all smacks hard of the hero’s journey, which I loathe and purposefully mock in the properly uncelebrated Cocaine + Surfing, but Phil Stutz seems epic.
Hill?
He seems gorgeously likable if not entirely obsessed with himself and his own journey of learning how to discover his own happiness.
Hell.
Childhood trauma, self doubt, self realization, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self, self.
It smacks of pure luxury.
Having the time to spend worrying and fixating upon the self, and the fourteen-year-old self, instead of having to get out of bed each morning and doing what it takes to get to bed each night.
Is your mother worried? Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?
I don’t know. I’m neither certified nor qualified to be offering mental help but ain’t a fixation upon self part of the problem if not the problem in its entirety?
Also, who amongst us looks upon our fourteen-year-old selves with great admiration? I was a straight kook at fourteen. Mark Hacker, quarterback, was not but who knows where that bro is now? I’d imagine nowhere. Both of us grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Back around, though, ain’t that what has infected lineups, worldwide, in this the era of the Vulnerable Adult Learner?
Me.
A me obsession?
Me and my shit skills and my lack of understanding, research, care of me in a broader context?
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
Me floating in a glorious universe of me.
Ugh.
But also watch the entire film, yourself, and react.
Me is certainly off in me’s opinion.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Could Jonah’s self exploration and new surf lifestyle just be a ploy to woo Gisele away from Slater?
Oh fucking hell chas, i told you one more article about that fat cunt and im off to hang with nick and longtom.
Let’s defy the odds together.
Can we talk about the Ultimate “Lady Bird” and “Florida Guy” winning Stab’s air thing..
Well, I gotta give you credit for actually writing about “something” as opposed to barfing the weird ramblings of your brain onto paper. Oh it creeps in there, and it had to be within your bizarre celebrity fantasies, but you wrote something. Not sure what but its something.
From my experience the best therapy is the passage of time.
Came across this on the ‘flix last night and thought for sure Chas will not let this go by quietly.
Agree 100%, to have that much free time to obsess over oneself, even if for betterment, is a gross luxury.
Therapy strikes me as a very American thing.
ditto surf instructors. that’s a parent’s job!
Excuse me?
My Yoga teacher says pretty much the same except for 10 bucks and shes way hotter.
I’m actually hyped to see him play both John Daly, and especially Jerry Garcia.
Chas in therapy:
TMZ
A TMZ obsession?
Me and my shit skills and my lack of understanding, research, care of SURF in a broader context?
TMZ,TMZ,TMZ,TMZ,TMZ,TMZ
“what the fuck is the internet?”
I’m still baffled by the genius balance of “surfer flare” this poser wears. Tats, hair dye, clothes, now he talks different…Fat Rick Kane!
Watched it with the wife last night.
I found it confronting, particularly the discussion around your Shadow aka the period of your life where you were ashamed of yourself, and how you might be letting it dictate your well-being in the present today.
What are you supposed to do if you’ve actually been pretty fucken awesome your entire life, like I have? How am I meant to grow?
Disturbing and confronting.
In seriousness I agree it was way too self involved. I do like to see him playing around with structure and narrative, though.
Did you really expect a “movie” about the heirs therapy sessions wouldn’t be self involved? Isnt that the entire point of therapy?
That “Shadow” period is some weighty concept. I think I’ve overcompensated for something like that my whole life. So without that, I might not have achieved all I wanted to. To paraphrase Han, “we forge our selves in the fire of our will.”
it’s 5:59 am
Los Angeles time,
Saturday mornin’
sun is comin’ up, wind is off~shore
+ i’m readin’ ‘Thee Grit., yow!
hey,
how ’bout just bein’ at a beach,
and watchin’ thee dude surf, have a good f**kin’ time?
i shot some surfpix of Jonah, a~while back,
https://imagez.tmz.com/imag…
cute article:
https://www.tmz.com/2020/02…
*********************************************************************************************
my g/f at thee time, Melissa,
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
+
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
she a SAG actress, she said to me that he is famous,
she negotiated a fair price,
i let TMZ use ’em…
Jonah Hill is just another dude, ridin’ wavez, havin’ FUN, now~a~dayz,
why you f**ktardz alwayz wanna bag on thee dude, well it escapes me…
by the way, i have never seen him act, as i don’t really watch toooo much tv, nor movies, either.
what does that last statement that i just wrote,
say ’bout you ‘kooks’, huh?
hmmm…
This “surfing “ website has really gone downhill
Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Therapy.
lost in translation: when he takes his wig off (think Phil Spector trial) and admits to Stutz and us that he’s been filming this for two years…that was the end of my watch!
But then the wig wasn’t really a wig either. That whole thing was a weird bit.
Stutz is an expose that affirms therapists are just a crazy as their patients…index cards, strange symbolic crib notes, pyramids, life force…Recreate basic personality skills…most of us learned in kindergarden? Then what do I know? We’re as crazy as they are with one exception; dual personalities in writing is OK, but multiple personalities for actors is a must! JH does deserve his freetime in the water…again, for the same reasons we do/did. Grounding and sometimes gettin a pounding…Or we’re just crawling back into the womb!
Maybe write something better?
Not really a surfing website here, more a site with and by surfers. So on that basis, it can’t really go anywhere.
You spelled Jonah wrong. But apart from that it’s a pretty spot on if slightly redundant observation.