There seems to be a line running directly through each of writer/director Bradley Cooper’s (“A Star is Born (2018),” “Maestro”) films ever since he’s stepped behind the camera. Each, in their own way, focuses on performing and the idea of using that performance to heal or hide from something eating away at its lead’s insides. Whether remaking one of the most quintessentially remade Hollywood tales or focusing on the life of a man arguably too vast to capture in two-hours-and-thirty-minutes, Cooper is clearly fascinated with the artistic process and its therapeutic abilities, however successful they may be. His third feature, and the first to not star himself, taps into that well once again in the least flamboyant way thus far.
“Is This Thing On?” stars Will Arnett (“Arrested Development,” “Bojack Horseman”) and Laura Dern (“Jurassic Park,” “Marriage Story”) as struggling married couple Alex and Tess Novak. After the pair decide to amicably call it quits, Alex ends up wandering into an open mic night at a comedy club. When his improvised, meandering set is somewhat of a success, Alex decides to return night after night, finding the process refreshing and therapeutic. Meanwhile Tess decides to get back into coaching volleyball, and the pair end up inadvertently rekindling their rocky relationship via their newfound hobbies.
Arnett and Dern are perfect together, and the film simply is at its best when they get to share the screen. Their relationship feels genuine and lived in, and at no point are they ever in question. Arguments can be made about the overall plot and the way it handles their characters, but they light up the screen each time they appear. Doubly so when they appear together. The film’s extensive supporting cast are more uneven. Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holliday,” “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”) and Cooper play Christine and Balls, a fellow rocky married couple, and while they’re charming enough, the film doesn’t do anything with them by the end of things. They populate the tale well enough, but don’t leave any kind of impact.
The same goes for the comedians Alex runs into while doing standup. Each is played by a real-life standup comic, like the always delightful Amy Sedaris (“Bojack Horseman,” “Strangers with Candy”) or Jordan Jensen, but they don’t leave any kind of impact on the overall film. They simply show up, do their thing, and leave. Most bizarrely is a ham-ily acted borderline cameo by Peyton Manning playing Laird, a fellow coach of Tess’s. He just appears and is immediately so out of place it becomes clear the only reason he survived the edit is because the couple of scenes he’s in prove too crucial to cut.
James Newberry’s (“Barron’s Cove”) energetic score keeps things moving briskly, with a rat-a-tat feeling that sounds like a much less ambitious version of the score from “Birdman.” Matthew Libatique (“Reqiuem for a Dream,” “Black Swan”) meanwhile shoots with a very claustrophobic close-up eye, emphasizing the numerous intimacies involved with the film’s evolving emotional arcs. Cooper’s decision to zero in on Alex and Tess’s emotional journeys via their reactions to and with each other is a massive highlight, allowing the narrative to ebb and flow as they do, rather than being told to the viewer as they recount things to friends or loved ones.
For as great as his direction and eye with Libatique is, the script from Cooper, Arnett, Mark Chappell (“Flaked,” “See How They Run”), and John Bishop is far more uneven. As previously stated, many of the supporting characters feel as though they’re there simply to fill up a cast list rather than for any legitimate reason. It’s easy to see this film falling into many of the traps notorious for works like this. Your eyes will certainly roll when you see the inevitable third act emotional “take my wife please” spiral coming a mile away. The dialogue is full of sparky one liners and, again, Dern and Arnett really make some magic happen together almost in spite of the pitfalls for a tale like this. But it doesn’t change the routine twee-ness at the center of it.
“Is This Thing On?” is certainly Cooper’s most interesting directorial work yet, in that it seems like it would be the hardest to nail. Dern and Arnett’s emotional arcs are fantastic thanks to these two leads, and hopefully it’ll lead to many more semi-dramatic live-action roles for Arnett in the future. But with a meandering script and underutilized supporting cast, it's a frustratingly messy film with a big beating heart. After the semi-misfire of “Maestro,” this is a “two steps forward, one step back” project for Cooper. But it can’t be argued that he isn’t trying to stretch out and do something a little different. 3.5/5
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