Movie Review: Is This Thing On?

By John Corrado

In Is This Thing On?, Bradley Cooper’s third film as director following A Star is Born and Maestro, the actor-turned-filmmaker in some ways goes back to basics.

Cooper’s latest film is an intimate, stripped down character study of a middle-aged dad going through a divorce, who discovers the healing power of doing confessional standup comedy at open mic nights.

Will Arnett, who also co-wrote the script, stars in the dramedy as Alex Novak. Alex is a middle-aged man in the midst of getting a divorce from his wife Tess (Laura Dern), and learning how to navigate splitting parenting duties of their two sons.

The standup comedy thing all starts as a bit of a lark; Alex stumbles into the Comedy Cellar one night and doesn’t want to pay the venue’s cover charge. So he signs up as a performer to get in for free and does an impromptu set. When he gets behind the mic, the words start spilling out from his mouth, as he talks about his kids and his divorce. Alex gets a decent reaction from the audience. And it becomes a bit of an obsession for him, as he starts workshopping more material based on his life and finding camaraderie with the other comics.

In addition to being a wholly satisfying, refreshingly nuanced divorce drama, Is This Thing On? also functions as an authentic look at the New York comedy scene. Cooper is once again working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, who brings a live comedy energy to the film, with Cooper himself serving as one of the camera operators. The largely handheld camerawork closely follows the actors, often framing Arnett in closeups. These closeups on Arnett’s face show an expressiveness in his eyes that Cooper capitalizes on.

This really is Arnett’s show. He does the sad sack, shaggy dog routine extremely well, incorporating his comedic instincts into what also functions as a convincing dramatic performance. It often becomes a two-hander between him and Dern, who does excellent work as well. Tess is portrayed as a fleshed out character trying to balance motherhood and a failing marriage, with her own career goals after previously being an Olympic tennis player.

The writing is sharp and layered. A big part of why the screenplay, co-written by Cooper, Arnett and British writer Mark Chappell, works so well is that it never vilifies either side of this divorced couple, but rather shows both Alex and Tess as flawed, believable people who each brought their own faults to the breakdown of this relationship. It’s a refreshing approach that neither one is shown as being the bad guy, and the film is all the more believable for it.

The ensemble cast includes Cooper himself in a supporting role as Alex’s friend, and Andra Day as his wife Christine. Cooper’s highly amusing portrayal of a shaggy haired stoner named Balls who is trying to kickstart his acting career, is proof positive that his own comedic chops as a performer haven’t dampened one bit, despite moving more into dramatic performances and directing in the years since his breakout role in The Hangover.

This is stylistically a very different film from Maestro and A Star is Born, in some ways feeling like the first movie an actor-turned-director would make. Cooper has said that he was partially inspired to direct by working with Clint Eastwood, and he is shaping up to have a similar career behind the camera, already showing a willingness to tackle any genre.

At roughly two hours, the film is very well paced, with Charlie Greene’s editing finding a steady rhythm that offers a good balance between the standup sets and the domestic scenes. Like any good comedy routine, the film keeps building in energy to a hugely satisfying payoff at the end, carried by Arnett’s wonderful performance. The degree to which Cooper sticks the landing here, building to a rush of feeling in the final moments, is what sends us off on a high.