‘Is This Thing On?’ Review: Will Arnett is a Stand Up Guy in Bradley Cooper’s Quieter, More Introspective Third Feature [B+] NYFF

Bradley Cooper isn’t the first director to come to mind to helm a romantic comedy.

Up to this point, the actor-turned-prestige filmmaker has swung for the fences, choosing projects that allow for bombastic, frame-filling experiences. He loves a certified jaw dropper, like Ally singing “Shallow” for the first time in A Star is Born, or Leonard Bernstein conducting his crowning achievement with the London Symphony Orchestra in Maestro. Yes, he underpins those stunning set pieces with intimate, sometimes gutting exchanges between lovers and adversaries. His most indelible cinematic marker so far is a dramatic, occasionally musical, flair that lends well to melodrama rather than the incredulous antics of our best rom-coms.

To be fair, Is This Thing On?, Cooper’s third directorial feature, isn’t quite a rom-com. The film, which world premiered at the 63rd New York Film Festival, tells the story of Alex Novak (Will Arnett, Arrested Development), a nondescript finance guy who suddenly finds his marriage to former Olympian Tess (Academy Award winner Laura Dern) in ruins. The tragedy of his marriage’s collapse is that he doesn’t really know why. One night, Alex goes to a bar hosting a comedy open mic night. He signs up for the open mic to evade the $15 cover charge, but ultimately finds catharsis in examining his wrecked life through the prism of self-effacing jokes. (Alex’s standup gamble was inspired by English comedian John Bishop, who performed for the first time in front of seven people to avoid a much more agreeable £4 pub cover charge.) Alex isn’t George Carlin or Midge Maisel, but that isn’t the point. Comedy becomes a new passion for Alex because it recontextualizes his life and his dead marriage. What he soon discovers is that reports of his marriage’s death may have been overexaggerated.

At first, it appears like Is This Thing On? will be another one of Cooper’s flashy, exhilarating affairs. He opens the film during a Chinese New Year celebration at a school, complete with a gigantic dragon’s costume bouncing up and down across the basketball court. It’s a fake out that ends with Alex’s dead-eyed stare ahead, in a state of dissociation from the rigamarole around him. From that point onwards, Cooper dials down the frenetic energy and focuses squarely on Alex’s pain, confusion, and, eventually, excitement from his comedian exploits. What Cooper does do is zoom in, crowding the camera into Alex and Tess’s personal spaces, locking us into every slight change in their respective demeanors. It’s a smart choice given that Alex and Tess keep their truest thoughts and feelings to themselves. He fills their scenes with a decidedly suburban air of passive, polite acceptance of their crumbling circumstances.

Cooper’s subtler, more intimate directorial choices allow the various facets of Alex and Tess’s marital and familial ennui to fully breathe. The script, written by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell, mines plenty of humor from the kids fretting about Alex’s apparent lack of goals and Alex’s mother (Christine Ebersole) staying close with Tess after their split. The jokes aren’t gut-busting or flashy, but they fill the atmosphere with a warmth and charm that keeps a persistent smile on your face. There are also scenes of heartache stemming from the disruption of Alex and Tess’s breakup. Both spouses shed tears in the most mundane of circumstances – Alex folding laundry and Tess seeing their kids’ toothbrushes, as the overwhelming reality and consequences of their mutual separation crashes into them. The contrast works well in showing that Alex and Tess’s separation is more complicated and compelling than waning attraction or irreconcilable differences. 

Humor and heartbreak aren’t particularly surprising coming from Is This Thing On? The film’s palpable sexual tension is. Alex and Tess are clearly not done, with both struggling to reconcile what a formal split means to their sense of selves. That struggle yields a large helping of sexual frustration that manifests in thrillingly bizarre ways. For instance, combing lice out of your spouse’s hair is the farthest from sexy you could imagine on paper. And yet, Cooper, Arnett, and Dern pull real adult sensuality from the moment, making you wonder if Alex and Tess were about to hook up in the shower, covered in lice shampoo suds. The film doesn’t play “will they, won’t they,” but rather, “they will, but where?,” which is a very fun change of pace. It also pushes them to confront what love and marriage means to them in this new, tricky space.

That difficult work could easily destroy all the film’s charm and goodwill, which only emphasizes the strength of its performances. Comedy is as natural to Will Arnett as breathing, and his timing and delivery makes even Alex’s (purposeful) joke bombs land. The wear and tear that he carries in his tone and eyes alongside those comedic instincts is what makes his performance remarkable. He is deeply connected to Alex’s pain, so much so that even his glimmers of joy still reflect a portion of misery and yearning for his life back. Arnett could’ve hid behind defensive self-deprecation and only offered glimpses, but his unguarded vulnerability makes for a stunning, perhaps all-time great dramedy performance. 

Laura Dern is a lovely complement to Arnett, conveying Tess’s own confusion about their marriage and her frustration at being lost within it with an intriguing, inviting distance. The supporting cast also serve Alex’s crisis well. Academy Award nominee Andra Day adds comedy to her expanding toolkit playing Christine, a delightfully prickly foil for Alex to bump against. Her confrontation with Alex (and Will Arnett’s clueless expression) is a highlight. Christine Ebersole snatches a few scenes of her own as Marilyn, Alex’s sympathetic-to-Tess mother. In Alex’s corner is Balls, a delightfully dim struggling actor played by Cooper himself. As the smallest role he’s played in his own films, you get the sense that Cooper had a, well, ball without the pressure of carrying the narrative weight and getting to play a charmingly delusional weirdo.

Is This Thing On? might not be a rom-com in the traditional sense, but its approach to both sides of the cinematic coin are more than worth sidestepping the semantics. With this film, Cooper expands the limits of his oeuvre, proving that he’s equally capable playing the minor keys as he is the major ones. He also further demonstrates that he is an actor’s director who knows how to craft the right environment to bring the best out of his players. Even at this lighter register, Cooper feels like he is hungry to tell more stories and isn’t interested in being inhibited by what audiences expect of him. He trusts his vision and his sense of narrative and technical control. That steadily growing confidence, alongside his fierce desire to learn and grow, makes every new entry in his canon a must-see, whatever the genre.

Grade: B+

This review is from the 63rd New York Film Festival where Is This Thing On? had its world premiere. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in theaters on December 19, 2025.