REVIEW: ‘Is This Thing On?’ Is A Stand-Out Relationship Movie

Relationships are hard, and Bradley Cooper’s directorial effort, Is This Thing On?, is a masterful depiction of what it looks like when you take that challenge on with emotional maturity and a willingness to grow. Starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as divorcing couple Alex and Tess Novak, the movie chiefly follows Alex as he discovers a passion for stand-up comedy in the wake of this difficult period in his life.

Sure, it’s easy to look at the concept on paper—a middle-aged man turning to stand-up to cope with his divorce—and write it off as been-there done-that, or something too obvious for your attention. But Is This Thing On? is so much deeper than that. It’s equal parts a sensitive reminder that men have feelings worthy of taking seriously and a reminder that men’s feelings aren’t the end-all, be-all of the universe.

At first, Alex is just bumbling into the comedy club and saying snarky things about Tess. But as he develops a sense of community and belonging among the comedians, he also becomes protective of that space and time. He doesn’t want other people in his life to be aware of it. It’s a special part of his life and his healing that he needs to, and deserves to, keep private from his friends and family.

Is This Thing On? is as much about Alex figuring things out post-divorce as it is about Tess figuring things out, too.

But while Alex is learning a lesson in loosening up and sharing his intimate emotions with strangers, he is also doing something even rarer: he’s learning to communicate with Tess, too. Their explosive arguments are enthralling, and the new form of relationship they are trying to forge is a desperately needed depiction of how two adults ought to talk through their relational issues, regardless of the heightened circumstances.

Alex isn’t the only one on a midlife crisis journey. Tess is also trying to understand what it can mean for her to start adult life over at this point. A former high-level athlete who took to parenting full-time, she begins exploring a new stage in her career and dating life. The cameo when Tess goes on a date is a little over the top, but he actually plays the part well enough that it at least keeps the movie moving, even if it’s a tad distracting.

Tess and Alex are both trying to unlock something in themselves that the other has not been able to satisfy for the duration of their relationship, and it’s heartening to watch them not only figure out what it means to be their own people again, but to learn anew what they can be in relation to one another. Most stories focus only on one or the other. In Is This Thing On, we are reminded that there can be different phases to relationships—they don’t have to be zero-sum games.

Bradley Cooper was wise to cast himself as the absurd friend, rather than the main character.

Alex and Tess are balanced out by two friends, Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Bradley Cooper). They, too, are going through a version of relationship difficulties. It’s a different type of situation, but they’re used as a combination of foil and comic relief with basically every word out of Cooper’s mouth, and every garb on his body, drawing attention to his stupidity.

While the characters are not especially memorable, it’s a fascinating sign of maturity from Cooper to cast himself in this absurd role, rather than place himself in the center of the story as he has in his previous directorial efforts. Balls is a bit much, but the foil is necessary for the ending to land, and his complete absurdity as a character makes Alex’s stand-up feel like it’s nothing all that out of the ordinary.

Because it isn’t, people deserve to have hobbies; even divorced dads with a little too loose a mouth. It’s the fact that his new hobby is exactly the thing that people make fun of men for trying that makes the entire effort of Is This Thing On successful.

Is This Thing On knows you’re judging it prematurely and disarms you right away.

Instead of judging Alex, the movie asks you to empathize with him. But instead of letting him get away with mean jokes and inappropriate behavior, as might be expected as the next step in the stand-up journey, the movie asks you to hold him accountable when he crosses that line.

The same is true of Tess. Is This Thing On lays the blame for the breakdown of their marriage equally on both characters without taking sides. Both have things they’re deservedly indignant about, as well as things for which they are completely wrong to feel self-righteous. This balance is another rarity the movie strikes well, and is essential to its sticking the landing.

Is This Thing On may sound hairy on paper, but Bradley Cooper knows the judgment you may be approaching the movie with, and successfully disarms you in short order. In practice, the movie is a well-conceived and solidly executed attempt to show stubborn people in all their complexity as they age, drift apart, and realize the wonders that communicating about their feelings can do for them and their relationship.

Is This Thing On? is in theaters December 19th.