Will Arnett and Laura Dern Propel ‘Is This Thing On?’
Searchlight Pictures
After his previous directorial effort, Maestro, earned seven Oscar nominations (including one for himself as Best Actor) Bradley Cooper could have moved into even grander territory. Instead, he narrowed his scope and his budget—and ended up with something far better than that film. There are some through lines between the two, however, the most substantial connection being the concern for the fracturing marriage of its central performer.
Is This Thing On? picks up just as Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess (Laura Dern) are leaving things off. The two have drifted apart in their marriage and separated. It’s mutual. Which means the hesitation and loneliness and fear are felt by each of them equally. For a while they put on a good show around their friends and family, but the direction they’re heading is undeniable. After one such night of playing the happy couple at a dinner party, Alex trips into a performance of a different nature. Looking for a drink, but unwilling to pay a cover fee, Alex jots his name down on the list for an open mic night at a comedy club.
He’s no comedian—he works in finance—and his life isn’t exactly giving him rich material for jokes, but his stammering efforts earn him a few sympathy laughs. He enjoys the experience enough to give it another shot, followed by another. Soon it’s a hobby, then a source of life. Always it is therapy: the comedy club constitutes Alex’s counselling sessions, and his stories are consistently drawn from the unfolding pain of his divorce.
It’s a simple, earnest film focused on these two characters in this period of their life. The script doesn’t reveal any major turning points that led them here or hinge on grand gestures to progress toward its conclusion. We are with Alex and Tess in their turmoil and tentative pleasures; the other characters are primarily present to demonstrate the community around them instead of garnering their own arcs. This even holds true for Cooper’s character, a desperate actor and zonked-out husband named Balls. Their friends and family watch on with sadness, forming communities of care that still seem unable to help, or to help in the only way that would matter. But still, they will endure.
Tess and Alex, meanwhile, are people who can’t seem to stop caring for each other despite the circumstances. Dern and Arnett are extraordinary. They have an immediate, if weary, rapport that further solidifies throughout the film and energizes the script. Initially the movie seems focused on Alex, and the uncertainty comes through every single expression of his face (even once his stand-up routines get a little stronger). Before long, though, Is This Thing On? opens up to give substantial space to Tess’s life, too. Dern has always been a wonderfully emotive performer, and she brings as much force to every look and posture as to her dialogue. Together they are electric—I would watch ten more movies focused on the two of them bouncing off each other in different roles.
Arnett and Dern are surrounded by a sturdy cast. Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds play Alex’s parents, and they quickly create their own believable relationship in the snippets they’re given. Alex’s newfound stand-up community is mostly stacked with real comedians—Jordan Jensen, James Tom, Reggie Conquest, and others. Jensen gets the most development as a de facto mentor / pal / maybe-something-more for Alex, but in all the film provides a simplistic and functional view of the stand-up world. Then there’s Andra Day and Cooper, who give Alex and Tess a mirror against which they can view their relationship. It’s nice to see that the director has found a much clearer use for Cooper’s skills and distinct presence. In a film about comedians, Balls’ non sequitur oddities steal the biggest laughs.
Cooper’s directing is pragmatic and unshowy, serving his story in the way it needs. While there’s little flashy camera or editing work, Cooper shows great care and maturity in knowing which shot is crucial in each moment. There’s a pan to Arnett’s forearm that becomes a punchline of its own. Or the lengthy close-ups on Dern’s or Arnett’s faces as they listen to someone else speaking. In a later scene, there’s a simple shot of Dern in the passenger seat of a car just looking into the camera that bursts with so much energy and joy that it kind of stunned me. Credit to Dern, undoubtedly, but also props to Cooper for knowing how effective it can be to put the camera on these performers.
Is This Thing On? was never going to get the awards attention of Maestro. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, no virtuoso displays of grandeur from the director. But it is a compassionate, lived-in comedy steered by two exceptional actors who are a joy to watch. I will always be delightfully surprised by movies that make a relationship feel real. So many movie pairings become overstated or unrecognizable, whether they’re displaying a good relationship or a bad one. So when the combination of script and performances brings about a dynamic that is this believable and textured, I will always view it as an achievement to applaud.
