IS THIS THING ON? Review

"I think I'm getting a divorce. What tipped me off was that I'm living in an apartment on my own."

After coming off the heels of remaking A Star is Born for a modern audience and trying his hand at making a biopic on Leonard Bernstein's life with Maestro, Bradley Cooper brought us his third film with Is This Thing On? last year. It premiered as the closing film of the 63rd New York Film Festival, where it got rave reviews. Being a fan of Cooper's first two films and having an incredibly busy schedule, I'd been wanting to see this but hadn't gotten a chance to watch it until this past month. And now that I have finally watched it, I thought it was just fine.

The film revolves around Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess (Laura Dern) Novak, who are in the midst of a falling out within their marriage. They both figure out how to live separately, while raising their two boys. One night, Alex stumbles his way into the Olive Tree Cafe, but he's unable to pay the cover. When he realizes it's free for comics to enter, he decides to put his name down at the Comedy Cellar. As he performs on the open mic nights, Alex realizes that this might give him a purpose in life and maybe some healing along the way.

One of the many aspects I do like about the film is the performances. Everyone surprisingly does a good job, even if they're not given much to do. Will Arnett, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Bradley Cooper, is able to hold his own as a leading man. There are moments in the second half that showcase his dramatic chops that impressed me. It also helps that Will and Bradley have become life-long friends, which helps create that personal bonding experience on and off screen.

Because of this, Bradley is able to direct Will into this side of what he can do in the dramatic moments. The rest of the ensemble are good from Laura Dern, Ciarán Hinds, and Andra Day; even Bradley gets a fun supporting role. I never realized until now how perfectly cast Bradley is as a stoner, but he's got some funny bits scattered throughout.

I do like how personal the film feels, as I got the feeling this was not only how Bradley might be within his own life but Will's as well. Afterall, they were inspired by known comedian, John Bishop, who received a "story by" credit. Usually when you get a film about messy relationships or people falling out of love, they can feel phony as they're more focused on check marking the beats without putting their own stamp on it.

I also realized that while Bradley is a solid director when dealing with actors, he's still in need of finding his own voice on the page. I like his dialogue at times and he's even got some terrific moments of dramatic tension throughout the film, but the story itself doesn't dig deep into the marriage or the choices our couple make. As where it goes does provide some interesting ideas, but by the end they seem perfunctory to me.

Is This Thing On? does provide solid performances and showcases Bradley's directing talents on a smaller scale. I do wish he had dived deeper into the martial problems the film attempts to address. If anything, I'm still glad I saw this as it was an entertaining film, seeing him collab with life-long friends of Will and Sean Hayes shows up in a small part. It may be more on the passive side for me, but I would recommend watching this if you're remotely curious about this flick. Just don't expect it to be the same size and scale as his first two films.

🍿 SCORE = 67/100