Lt VanBuren – Google

There are powerful ideas conveyed in this film. I came away with more helpful insight in this approximately 90 minute film than I have in years of talk therapy. I was a bit concerned about 30 minutes in when Jonah Hill stops to question his approach to the film-making process, but the train was back on track pretty quickly and that vignette served to highlight the love and respect between the two men. I’ve never seen a Jonah Hill movie (loved his sister, Beanie, in season 1 of What We Do in the Shadows), but he has performed a service by making Dr. Stutz’ fundamental ideas available to viewers who seek answers and insight.

Well, I watched it purely for the cast and started to turn it off a couple of times (as another reviewer noted, the musical interludes early on are pretty intrusive). It’s a great film, though. And I got some insight into my own grieving which I hadn’t found through therapy (lost all of my family but one over eight years). Yes, you want time to stop so you can catch your breath; not happening. As another reviewer stated, I’ll watch anything with this cast. In the end, it’s a beautiful, thoughtful, and insightful movie about walking through the grieving process. Edit: And let’s not forget the healing power of hands in the soil- whether it’s a garden or a sticking a green onion shoot in a pot by the sink (absolutely un-killable).

The movie starts out like a Lifetime or Hallmark Chanel B-grade version of Castaway, but then morphs into Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”-like psychological come-to-Jesus reckoning. I started to turn it off many times during the first two episodes but stuck with it in the end and I’m glad I did. It pulled a lot of strings in my own middle class, outwardly idyllic upbringing. Very interesting and worth the investment of time to view.