Is This Thing On? ★★★

Director Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? follows as Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess Novak (Laura Dern) decide to “call it” on their marriage. There was no adultery involved, just a prolonged drifting apart. The separation comes with no fights, just quiet resignation and quick negotiation on where Alex will sleep that night before officially moving out. The couple have a lot to sort out, especially with their two young sons blindsided by the sudden separation of their parents. However, the separation and the ensuing self-reflection sends each in a unique direction. As Tess begins to think about coaching volleyball, Alex finds himself wandering into the Comedy Cellar. With no cash on him to pay the $15 cover, he decides on a whim to partake in the club’s open mic night in order to get a drink. One stand-up appearance turns into another and soon an obsession with Alex not only improving his new craft, but finding the time on stage to be the exact kind of therapy he needs.

Is This Thing On? is a slice of life film, offering an expansive look on the everyday of Alex and Tess’s journey after their separation. Cooper’s film is largely a study of marriage and of relationships, somewhat striving to figure out what makes them “tick” while also throwing its hands up to admit that sometimes life just happens, makes no sense, and it is nicer to be experiencing it with someone than alone. Though centered on the end of a marriage, Is This Thing On? never follows an overly contentious or hostile thread with Alex and Tess only bickering on a few occasions, but never losing sight of the overall feeling of love they still have for one another. Unlike Kramer vs. Kramer or Marriage Story, Is This Thing On? has no interest in the legal process of a divorce. In fact, the Novak’s have no idea if that is even the next step for them right now, they just know they need to be apart.

The greatest asset for Is This Thing On? is cinematographer Matthew Libatique. His work here with Cooper echoes their prior collaboration on A Star is Born with plenty of close-ups and a reliance on a handheld camera. Whether it is Alex’s stand-up work being shot this way or the tight two-shots of he and Tess speaking about their marriage, Libatique and Cooper create a very intimate and personal picture. While their expressive eyes and faces tell a story, so do the gray hairs and wrinkles. They are a couple who, as Alex noted in his stand-up, have been together for about 26 years from when they first met to now. They are, somewhat, those same people but they are also very different people now. The years have changed them considerably. The close-ups are raw and honest. While their faces tell a story and communicate an emotional depth beyond words, the camera does the same. 

In a particularly explosive scene, Alex and Tess are on a vacation with their friend group. Alex has snuck up to Tess’s attic room to spend the night and the two turn from discussing one another’s worst qualities – it is a marriage counseling exercise Alex had read about and comes about in a moment of bonding and some emotional reconciliation – to fighting about who was truly “checked out” in their marriage. Upon discovering that their private conversation was being eavesdropped on by their mutual friend and host Christine (Andra Day), Alex bursts out of the attic, heads down the stairs, and Cooper and editor Charlie Greene seamlessly transition this chaotic handheld tracking shot into him walking down the Comedy Cellar steps and onto the stage. Arnett’s eyes are not often in view during this particularly volatile set. As he tears into the concept of love and just bears the hurt in his soul, Libatique’s camera is bouncing around and trying to follow along the frantically moving Alex. The intensity and rage he feels are evident, but the complex emotional storm beneath the surface is communicated by the chaotic camerawork. It is a great scene, Arnett’s emotional range is really shown here, and it is a moment made by the slick editing, smart blocking, and Libatique’s approach to shooting the stand-up scenes.

Is This Thing On? is often funny with Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell’s sharp script wringing out plentiful laughs. It is not laugh-a-minute by any means, but it finds the right moments of levity. Its stand-up scenes are, oddly enough, the least funny in the film but Arnett’s scenes have the right balance of deadpan delivery and honest, truthful characterization to make them appealing and amusing. There is a great stand-up film lurking within Is This Thing On? with many of the best scenes being of Alex just hanging around with other comics and falling in with this sub-culture of comics working the local clubs, honing their craft, and becoming their own unique social group. It is the exact community he needs at the moment and one longs for a film that spends a bit more time developing this world. 

Cooper himself appears as Balls, Alex’s friend and husband to Christine. He and Christine are having their own issues, which Is This Thing On? uses to comment on the uniqueness of every couple’s dynamic and to further explore themes about personal growth and goals. At times, however, Balls can feel like a character from another film entirely and any scene with Balls included eventually stops to re-center itself on Balls, a weird dynamic that Is This Thing On? struggles with, but Cooper is a likable presence. A scene with Balls and Alex at the birthday party for one of Alex’s sons turns into their own spin on the classic Abbott & Costello “Who’s on First?” bit with great success turning this potentially unremarkable scene into a comedic standout. As a whole, however, many of the friend group scenes struggle to fit in with the overall focus of Is This Thing On?, coming at the expense of spending more time alone with Tess (a few scenes of her volleyball journey and dating experiences are shown, but the story is mostly told from Alex’s perspective). Though the film is balanced in laying blame in the case of their separation, more narrative and character balance would have been beneficial.

Is This Thing On?, as a whole, is best in its quiet moments. Alex and his father Jan (Ciarán Hinds) sharing a talk in the backyard and at the Comedy Cellar – Hinds steals every scene he is in throughout – or a scene during the friend’s vacation of recently married couple and friend of Alex and Tess’s, Stephen (Sean Hayes) and Geoffrey (Scott Icenogle) sneaking downstairs to enjoy a midnight snack together. With Alex and Tess, it is the look in Dern’s eyes as she realizes, even in their separation, that Alex has driven almost an hour to pick her up from her coaching job because he wanted to. Arnett and Dern, who are both terrific and share a wonderful chemistry, capture a raw authenticity in their characters that ensures the emotional foundation of Is This Thing On? is built on solid ground. Perhaps Is This Thing On? is never quite profound, as circling around the idea that marriage is difficult and people change is never likely to unearth new ground. But, it never needs to be profound. It just needs to feel true, heartfelt, and honest, which the film and its characters do. It recognizes that people can change individually or as a couple, that people can slowly drift apart without meaning to, that one can lose sight of themselves in trying to keep up with the day-to-day, and that there is always time to make sure that life is not just something that passively happens to you.