'Is This Thing On?' review: Bradley Cooper's small-scale story about love and family
Will Arnett tries his hand at stand-up comedy in "Is This Thing On?" Credit: Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald
PLOT A man in midlife crisis turns to stand-up comedy as therapy.
CAST Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Bradley Cooper
RATED R (language, sexuality)
LENGTH 2:00
WHERE Area theaters
BOTTOM LINE Arnett and Dern manage to shine in a somewhat scattershot comedy-drama from writer-director Cooper.
"I think I’m getting a divorce," Alex Novak says onstage at a comedy club in "Is This Thing On?" "What tipped me off," he explains, "is that I’m living in an apartment on my own."
He’s here all week, ladies and gentlemen, because it turns out that a few minutes on an open mic is good for a free drink at Greenwich Village’s famous Comedy Cellar. Stand-up also becomes a great way for financier Alex (Will Arnett) to process his split from former volleyball star Tess (Laura Dern). What’s more, it gives him confidence and a new group of hip young friends. "Hey, Sad Guy," one calls to him after the show, "want to hang out?"
"Is This Thing On?" marks a departure for director Bradley Cooper, who wrote it with Arnett and Mark Chappell. Following the ambitious, auteurist statements of "A Star Is Born" and "Maestro," Cooper enters Noah Baumbach territory with this small-scale story about love and family. Even the world of comedy is shrunk down to size, and therein lies a problem. "Is This Thing On?" promises access to the secret society of comics, with their dreams of fame, hard-won laughs and frequent heartbreaks. What we get instead — and it’s not a bad trade-off — is a portrait of a splintering couple played by Dern (flawless as always) and a surprisingly well-matched Arnett, who’s better known for comedic roles and voice-over work (he’s Lego Batman).
The split is amicable ... ish. The couple’s two tender boys (Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten) take the news well, but Alex’s flighty actor friend, nicknamed Balls (Cooper, highly entertaining), suddenly begins mulling his own divorce from Christine (an icy Andra Day). Then there’s Alex’s dismayed parents (Christine Ebersol and a touching Ciarán Hinds), whose marriage is imperfect but intact. Tess will be slow to start dating (she dines with an old friend, played rather inexplicably by football great Peyton Manning), whereas Alex is moving with a faster crowd. A getaway with friends in Oyster Bay, where just about everyone's relationship takes an unexpected turn, teeters on the brink of bedroom farce. More effective are the many candid conversations these struggling characters have; you've probably had them yourself.
At the Comedy Cellar, Alex soaks up supportive vibes from real-life comics such as Chloe Radcliffe and Reggie Conquest. Yet Cooper doesn’t seem very interested in the craft or the psychology of comedy. No one offers much insight into the mechanics of a joke or the way humor can impale a squirming truth. Trying to cull material from his daily life, Alex marvels at his fellow comics: "You guys just write stuff down all day?"
Still, when the movie works, it works. The characters feel real, with grown-up problems that have no easy answers. And the fact that this film was inspired by a true story does not guarantee a fairy-tale ending. Like one of Alex’s earnest but shambolic routines, Cooper’s film has trouble finding its rhythm, but there’s something meaningful in its material.
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