Director: Bradley Cooper
Cast: Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper
Screenplay: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Mark Chappell
124 mins. Rated R for language throughout, sexual references and some drug use.

Is it weird to say that this is likely Will Arnett’s best performance? Yeah, I remember The LEGO Batman Movie, but this might be even better.

It’s time to call it. The marriage is over for Alex (Will Arnett, Ratatouille) and Tess (Laura Dern, Little Women). As he confronts this life-altering moment walking the New York City streets, he inadvertently wanders onto an Open Mic list at a comedy club, and he finds the moment fulfilling. On the other side, Tess is trying to rekindle a career in volleyball, something she’d sacrificed for the sake of their marriage and family. As their paths diverge in their own directions, they find that this newfound freedom allows them to understand their relationship, how it formed and how it ended, and perhaps a new path forward.

Is This Thing On? is very loosely based on the Liverpool-based comedian John Bishop, but I’m sure that Arnett brought a lot of his personal life to the character of Alex. This feels like a very introspective story for Arnett that showcases a lot of the subtlety of his acting skills. Through Alex, Arnett is able to capture the pain and loss that comes with this life change, and he’s able to expertly navigate the confusion and fear of the comedy stage. Director/Co-Writer Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born), who also appears in the film as Alex’s best friend Balls (no, I’m not joking), keeps his camera very laser-focused and invasive during the sequences of Alex on the stage so as to really see the effect that the experience is having on Alex, both the healing and the destructive, and it makes for a character study that feels realistic to the comedy scene in a way so few films about the subject are able.

What’s remarkable about Is This Thing On? that I think some will overlook is how Tess is utilized in the film. Tess, aided by Dern’s very strong character work, is a completely developed character who often gets as much focus as Alex. In past years, I would’ve assumed that someone in the relationship had to be the “asshole” in the relationship, but the screenplay gives equal blame to both in the dissolution of the marriage. Often in marriages, it’s nobody’s fault and everybody’s fault, and Cooper’s film allows for the nuance to have these conversations. People going through a divorce are always fucked up and messy and it’s so powerful to see them both getting uncomfortable and real here.

I do wish that we had seen confrontation in Alex’s new career, especially dealing with the current daily life he’s trying to hold together. We see how comedy affects his relationships, but I was consistently wondering about the “finance work” he supposedly does during the day because we just don’t see it. This is a conflict of work that should’ve been explored. I also don’t think Alex fails enough. I’ve read so many books and seen so many interviews with comedians who discuss how fucking difficult it is at the beginning because you bomb a lot as you learn the ropes and get comfortable up there, and Alex doesn’t deal with it enough.

Is This Thing On? is a strange beast seen within the confines of Bradley Cooper’s directorial career. It feels more in line with Cooper as an actor than as a director, but this relatively smaller film has all the hallmarks of a great drama and a great comedy. The melding works, mostly due to Arnett and Dern, but Cooper brings a personal, small, and intimate lens to the tale that makes for a very funny and a very tender story of pulling apart and finding oneself first.

4/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, click here.