Is This Thing On?
★★
Is This Thing On? really surprised me, and not in the way I hoped it would. On paper, this felt like it should be right in my wheelhouse: an indie relationship drama, Will Arnett getting a chance to lead a film in a more dramatic register, and Bradley Cooper directing after bringing so much passion and style to A Star Is Born and Maestro. Add in the stand-up comedy angle, and this seemed like it had all the ingredients to be something sharp, vulnerable and quietly insightful. Instead, I was kind of dumbfounded by how little of it actually works.
The biggest issue, by far, is the screenplay. When I saw in the end credits that Cooper and Arnett were among the co-writers, my heart sank a little, because this movie feels like a pure example of a script never quite coming together. The performances and overall craftsmanship are solid enough, but none of that can overcome the fact that the story just doesn’t ring true. I never believed these characters were real people. Ironically, I was already having that reaction throughout the movie, so when the film closed with one of those “inspired by true events” title cards, it only made things feel even more confounding.
This is essentially a story about a couple in separation, with Arnett and Laura Dern playing two people trying to reconnect with themselves and their passions while also figuring out what remains between them. That setup has potential, but the emotional math never adds up. We’re given pieces of their resentment and disconnection, but not enough to make their push-and-pull feel organic. The film keeps asking us to invest in emotional beats that it hasn’t fully earned, and because of that, everything starts to feel like a series of dramatic leaps rather than lived-in moments.
The stand-up comedy storyline especially never worked for me. I wasn’t expecting the movie to suddenly become some definitive look at the comedy world, but I at least needed to buy that Arnett’s character had real talent or momentum. I never did. The film wants us to believe that stand-up becomes this emotional outlet and maybe even a meaningful new path for him, but neither the material nor the reactions around him ever made that convincing. Even when the movie tries to lean into comedy, especially through Cooper’s supporting role, it just isn’t funny.
And maybe this is a small detail to get hung up on, but the movie is strangely vague about how Arnett’s character actually lives. Open mic comedy requires time, energy and a lot of late nights, and yet the movie barely grounds us in his day-to-day reality. We get glimpses of him parenting his boys on his own, but not enough of the larger practical world around him. At one point he can seemingly afford a new car, and the film just expects us not to question any of it. That lack of texture makes the whole thing feel even more artificial.
There are also stylistic choices that really started to wear on me. Cooper is absolutely fascinated with close-ups here. The camera is constantly pressed right into people’s faces, as if sheer proximity is going to force intimacy. I get the intention. It’s probably meant to create a sense of suffocation or emotional claustrophobia. But it’s so overused that it becomes distracting. I’ve been married for over 15 years, and I can safely say I have never consistently stood as close to my wife Whitney’s face as these characters do to each other in nearly every conversation.
The film also leans heavily on a framed photo that’s clearly meant to operate as this emotional symbol or recurring visual motif, and it just never lands. It feels less like an organic detail and more like a screenwriting device blinking in neon. Then there’s Peyton Manning, who completely took me out of the movie. I actually think Peyton is really charming onscreen and generally good at what he does, but his presence here feels wildly mismatched with the rest of the film.
That’s ultimately what Is This Thing On? left me with: the feeling of very talented, very successful people trying to write “ordinary” characters and missing the mark. I like Bradley Cooper. I like Will Arnett. I like Laura Dern. But this movie feels like people imagining what emotional messiness and suburban strain look like rather than actually understanding it. The world of the film should feel intimate and recognizable, yet it comes off like an imitation of authenticity instead. And when a smaller, more grounded indie drama doesn’t feel emotionally real, the distance it creates can be even worse than in some giant effects-driven spectacle.
By the time the film builds toward its big emotional crescendo at a local school talent show, it’s asking us to care deeply about the kids and the family dynamic in a way it simply hasn’t earned. It’s reaching for catharsis without doing the hard work to get there.
I love this kind of movie. I love the pace, the tone and the ambition of indie dramas that want to explore complicated adult relationships. But Is This Thing On? is a reminder that when authenticity feels fake, there’s really nowhere for a film like this to hide.
