Is This Thing On? Proves Wonderfully Grown-Up With its Stand-Up

A toast to Bradley Cooper: he has impressive range as a creative person. His best work as an actor, in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, saw him dig into the psychology of a childish man incapable of seeing beyond himself to chilling effect. Now, with Is This Thing On?, Cooper (directing, teaming with star Will Arnett and screenwriter Mark Chappell to write, and playing an important member of the ensemble) digs into the minds of a middle-aged couple (Arnett and Laura Dern) who are looking for themselves and each other in the wake of their marriage failing. It’s a thoughtful, funny movie that gives its talented cast space to do rich work, and it is confident enough to let uncertainty linger. In other words, it’s a film for grown-ups. That’s always worth celebrating.

Alex (Arnett) and Tess (Dern)’s marriage is over. They still care for each other, but their connection has faded and they’re both feeling a bit lost. They know who they are as parents to their boys Felix and Jude (Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten), and as friends to pals Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Cooper), but neither of them quite has a handle on who they are on their own. When Alex goes for a stoned late night walk after a party where he and Tess pretended they were still together, he signs up to do open mic stand-up so that he doesn’t have to pay a bar’s cover fee. Anxious but curious, Alex goes on stage when his name is called and gives…a messy, amateurish performance. But, amidst his stumbles, he gets some laughs. More than that, he finds himself with a spark. Alex likes doing stand-up, he likes making people laugh, he likes taking his angst and anxieties and turning them into something good.  So, he signs up again. And again. He starts taking notes, workshopping material, and building himself a set. He joins New York’s stand-up community. He blossoms. 

Tess played volleyball once. That’s an understatement. She didn’t just play volleyball, she was a full-on, no-nonsense Olympian. The game was her game, and her game was her life. When she retired, she threw herself into parenting, thinking that that would be the capital letters Next Big Thing for her. It was. Mostly. Tess and Alex have done a good job raising Felix and Jude, and while neither of their sons is anywhere near grown-up, they’re well on their way to figuring out who they’ll want to be when they are grown-up. That means space, space Tess isn’t sure what to do with. Space that volleyball could fill in a different way than it once did. She can play for the joy of playing, and she can take her immense skill and use it as a launchpad to coach the young women who now stand where she once did. Tess gets her game back and rediscovers a light she hadn’t realized she’d lost. She blossoms. 

Being happy and locked in on something looks good on Alex and Tess, and they can see it. They didn’t marry out of obligation, they married because they loved each other, and their new passions help them see what they first saw in each other. The trick is that, while the excitement, the sparks, and the history are all real and should not be discounted, their marriage really did fail. Tess, when she struggled, would wait for Alex to see that she wanted him to reach out to her. Alex couldn’t separate the present Tess from his image of her during her Olympian days. They can work as a couple, but if they want to, they’ll need to address the unspoken pressure points that led to the failure in the first place. 

Is This Thing On? is not flashy in the ways that A Star is Born or Maestro was. It does not launch a hit pop song, nor does Cooper conduct an orchestra while wearing an ill-advised nasal prosthesis. Cooper instead creates a stage for Arnett and Dern to ply their trade, both alone and together. This is clearest with Arnett’s Alex and his journey as a comic. Based on testimony from comedians, stand-up is hard to get right on film, especially stand-up that isn’t earth-shattering. Arnett, a professional funnyman, threads that needle. Alex’s first set is awkward, searching, and gets the laughs it does not because he’s a comic savant, but because he’s a smart, observant guy who’s able to share those observations in an amusing way. As Alex gets used to being on stage and starts actively developing his material, he believably improves. Thanks to Arnett’s careful performance, Alex is never world-shatteringly, Carlin-level great, but he does get good. 

Dern doesn’t get the same amount of focus that Arnett does, but to put it bluntly, she’s Laura Dern. She plays Tess’ journey of rediscovery wonderfully, especially as she gets excited to see how her coaching can help her students fly the way she flew. 

Arnett and Dern are a pleasure to watch, especially once Alex and Tess find themselves drawn back together by the ways they’ve changed while on their own. Their attraction is charming and sexy, the push and pull of their navigating who they are to each other compelling. Cooper is comfortable with discomfort, letting his protagonists sit with tensions they cannot easily resolve and hurts that sting all the more because they were unintentional. Thanks to his careful, unfussy craft and his trust in Dern and Arnett, Is This Thing On? consistently feels genuine. It earns the feelings it inspires, and that’s no mean feat.

All told, Is This Thing On? is a darn well-made film that serves two excellent performances from two great actors. It’s well worth seeing.

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