A divorcing man finds a new calling in stand-up comedy in Bradley Cooper’s emotionally resonant drama Is This Thing On?, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern.
In 2018, Bradley Cooper proved himself an incredibly strong, nuanced, and focused director in the latest A Star is Born, ushering Lady Gaga into the cinematic limelight as much as he moved into the director’s chair (while co-starring). Unfortunately, he followed A Star is Born with the cloying, Oscar-begging, showy Maestro, a film I found myself not only disliking but loathing in 2023. I worried A Star is Born wasted all the power and everything he learned. Luckily, my fears were for nought. Is This Thing On? (leaving off the question mark for the remainder, if just not to fight with the checker programs) is an intelligent and restrained adult drama, though not without hefty comedy (though I’d be reticent to say “dramedy”) of a marriage falling apart and how each member works through it, particularly Will Arnett’s Alex, who stumbles into a second career as a stand-up comedian to work out his issues. For those just reading the first paragraph to get a feel (I do that): I need to say Laura Dern is astounding as Tess, but more later.
Is This Thing On, co-written by Cooper and Arnett, is ostensibly based on British comedian John Bishop. In the midst of a divorce, the former footballer avoided a cover charge at a bar by getting on stage and talking about his life. Turns out, he was good at it, making wry observations about how it was going, or not going in many cases. He’s since used this previously unknown skill to buoy into a full comedic and acting career (I know him most as a companion for The Thirteenth Doctor; Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor for non-Whovians). But Is This Thing On isn’t a biopic for all those genres’ warts. It’s a smart and mature adult drama of how people navigate mid-life changes, that just happens to take its basis from a well-known person.
While this is about both halves of the unravelling couple, Will Arnett’s Alex is the more followed character. Many viewers often write off primarily comedy actors and might shrug, but push that away. Arnett has never been better. He uses his known grumbly oafish, just-enough-of-an-ass charm incredibly well. He’s more than suited for this role, hiding an immense hurt that he doesn’t know what to do with, hiding behind and through the new comedy focus, acting as a sort of therapy. I appreciate Cooper not playing the role himself, as he’s been the lead male in his past two films, allowing him room to breathe as a director (he does pop in to steal laughs as Balls’s stoned-out best friend).
I love you, Laura Dern. And I love her in this film, giving yet another utterly perfect performance in a lifetime of them. Like so many of my generation, I saw her first in Jurassic Park (still the greatest movie of all time), but whether going back in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, or forward in Inland Empire or Twin Peaks: The Return, or maybe the Oscar-nominated performance in Wild if you want a non-David Lynch flick. Anyway, gushing on Dern put aside: she’s fantastic and real as the wife of Will Arnett’s Alex. Tess is no mere foil to Alex’s shifts and character, but a fully realised part of the film; it’s her story as much as his. She and Arnett have similar thoughts and needs, but the film finds truths in how they each approach the hows. It helps Arnett and Dern have the true chemistry of a long-running couple, with their ups and downs and history. The mesh and fold play off one another in a relationship that feels the history, where they were, where they are going, and the life, laughs, and love they’ve shared.
That’s the strength. Is This Thing On is a lived-in film; the relationships are real, the connections true. He’s not a sad sack schlub who doesn’t know how to be a dad to their twins or live on his own; she’s not an uptight shrew. Cinematic stereotypes need not apply. The relationship of Arnett and Dern is the heart, despite anything their specific characters do as they navigate the changes in their lives. Cooper and Arnett skillfully navigate the life of this pair. It’s almost the opposite of the Laura Dern Oscar-winning Marriage Story; Alex and Tes are people who still love and respect each other, still share heartbeats, but are now slightly out of sync, stuck in a rut, and neither is sure of how to get out besides going their separate ways. Cooper and Arnett avoid the melodrama of bigger moments where it may be one level off a sitcom; the fights and make-ups, conversations and frustrations don’t fly into cinematic space, remaining small slices and divots. It’s refreshing to have level-headed adults talk through problems and what they are thinking about. Yes, they hide things from one another, but are remarkably fresh when uncovered, no “silly misunderstanding unravels it all.”
Some may take it as a demerit in a way, a slice of life that draws from relationships and characters rather than big moments may be a little too low-key, or just too close to life, for many. I get it, perhaps things are a bit too pat at points, where one might expect a Big Moment or a story shift that doesn’t occur. I, for one, like the emotional honesty, and the script is witty and tightly written enough to drive their characters through the story.
Outside of Alex and Tess, they have their connections, friends, and families. Alex’s new world of comedy is filled with real New York comedians; they have a natural flow of workmates riffing. Alex and Tess share a friend group in the pairs of Andrea Day’s Christine, and her husband, Balls, working as a mirror, and a newly married couple played by a real-life married couple: Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle. Best of all is the forever-favourite Ciaran Hinds, working with Christine Ebersole as Alex’s parents. The pair have a scene-stealing rapport and chemistry. A total delight.
Cooper shoots the film almost like a documentary, up close and personal; a fly on the wall that sometimes getts close in on faces. It has a certain level of unrefined off-kilter that builds a layer of truth; it’s natural. Cooper often keeps unconventional angles, 45 degrees, getting close. This only reflects the mindsets of the characters, but connects to how comedians work: sliding in uncomfortably close to a stranger’s life; their stories, their ups, their flaws.
Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett craft an emotionally effective and true film. It simmers with a realistic energy, helped by another powerhouse performance by Laura Dern and a fantastic cast surrounding them. It’s a dramatic triumph of real characters acting like real adults. Highly recommended.