‘Is This Thing On?’ review: Bradley Cooper’s bittersweet third feature stars Will Arnett and Laura Dern

Dir: Bradley Cooper. US. 2025. 120mins

Like his previous films, director Bradley Cooper’s third feature chronicles the challenges of romantic commitment between two complicated, thoughtful people. Is This Thing On? stars Will Arnett as a man who finds an unlikely outlet for processing his impending divorce, impulsively trying his hand at stand-up comedy. His nuanced performance is well-matched by that of his co-star Laura Dern, as his soon-to-be ex-wife who similarly seeks to make sense of the end of their 20-year marriage.

Settles comfortably into a melancholy register

After premiering at the New York Film Festival, this bittersweet drama screens in London before opening theatrically in the US on December 19 and the UK on January 30. Cooper’s A Star Is Born and Maestro combined for 15 Oscar nominations (and one win) — and 14 Bafta nominations (and one win) — so Is This Thing On? will enter awards season with an impressive pedigree. Comparisons to Noah Baumbach’s thematically similar divorce picture Marriage Story, which earned Dern multiple acting prizes, are inevitable, although Is This Thing On?’s novel milieu should help distinguish it.

Best known for his comedic work, including his years on the beloved cult series Arrested Development, Arnett (who also co-wrote this screenplay) plays Alex, a seemingly unremarkable New York finance executive who is about to separate from his wife Tess (Dern), a former world-class volleyball player. The couple have remained friendly, partly because they’re dedicated to jointly raising their two young sons, but Alex feels lonely and adrift as he moves into his new apartment. One night, lost in his despair, he wanders into a comedy club, deciding on a whim to perform during an open-mic set. He has never done comedy before, but realises that going on stage and joking about his insecurities gets a reaction — and makes him feel better.

This is Cooper’s third straight film as a director to probe the intersection of art and love, and here he examines how an everyman taps into his creative side to exorcise his broken heart. Smartly, Is This Thing On? never suggests that Alex is an unheralded comedic genius. For Alex, stand-up is really just a form of therapy, allowing him a healthy outlet, in a room full of strangers, to unburden himself in a way he cannot elsewhere. Working with his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Cooper films Alex’s unpolished stand-up sets in close-up, emphasising how emotionally naked he is on stage as he tries out material — in the process struggling to understand what went wrong with Tess.

The film refuses to vilify either character, consciously waiting until near the finale to fully explain why the marriage sputtered. Deprived of that key information, we can only judge Alex and Tess by how they behave in the here and now, which is amicable and even loving. But although the couple maintain an affectionate rapport, they still betray fleeting hints of the tension and animosity that drove a wedge between them. When those mysteries are at last revealed, the delicate scenes have an unfussy grace to them.

Arnett and Dern exude an easy, grownup chemistry as their characters start the inevitable process of letting go of one another as husband and wife. Each of them turn to their own secret balm: Alex has his open-mic sets, while Tess reconnects with herself by becoming a volleyball coach. Their conversations, warm but slightly guarded, convey all the tangled feelings that make divorce so painful, even when the exes still get along rather well. If anything, that weathered bond only adds to the picture’s quiet lament that Alex and Tess have reached this point of no return.

There’s an unexpected plot twist late in the film, and it’s a credit to Cooper’s sensitive depiction of these three-dimensional characters that it feels earned. That twist will also affect Alex and Tess’ closest friends, married couple Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Cooper), who are similarly wrestling with the impossibilities of maintaining a happy relationship. Cooper can sometimes strain when providing the film’s comic relief — his character is a cluelessly pretentious aspiring actor — but on the whole Is This Thing On? settles comfortably into a melancholy register, watching Alex and Tess negotiate their new normal, with or without punchlines.