Is This Thing On? is, above all else, a sweet and enormously heartfelt film. Starring Will Arnett as Alex Novak and Laura Dern as Tess, Alex’s estranged-but-amicable wife, the movie’s boiled-down logline — “a middle-aged dad on the brink of divorce stumbles into stand-up comedy, and the new hobby gives him a renewed perspective on life” — sounds more than a little corny on paper. But that description does a disservice to what the film actually is: a nuanced, tonally complex, and deeply emotional journey.
Bradley Cooper’s naturalistic direction (paired with an excellent supporting performance) gives Is This Thing On? a gentle authenticity that makes this character-driven dramedy a genuine pleasure to watch. In many ways, it feels like a thoughtful counterpoint to the upcomingMarty Supreme— another film built around an award-worthy male lead confronting uncomfortable truths about his life and dreams. Unlike Marty, though, Alex approaches that reckoning from a far softer, more intimate angle.
Will Arnett & Laura Dern Shine
Will Arnett Is This Thing On?Image via Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures
Viewers who know Arnett best as blustering goofball Gob Bluth from Arrested Development might reasonably question his ability to anchor a more dramatic role — though anyone who followed him into the emotional depths of BoJack Horseman knows he’s capable of handling heavy material. As Alex, Arnett delivers a fully realized performance, bringing his character’s mannerisms, anxieties, and quiet struggles vividly to life. He strikes the perfect balance between wry humor and self-deprecation, and despite being a successful comedic performer in real life, gives a surprisingly spot-on portrayal of someone tentatively dipping a toe into the stand-up scene and not knowing what the hell he;s doing.
The film opens in an unusual (and risky) place: Alex and Tess, together for two decades, have just decided to split, unceremoniously, while brushing their teeth one night. We meet them at what appears to be the end of their marriage, with no initial context for how they functioned as a couple. There’s no guarantee that audiences would immediately invest in the fate of a relationship already fractured. Yet the character work from Arnett and Dern (along with a sharp script co-written by Arnett, Cooper, and Mark Chappell) forges an emotional connection almost immediately, endearing both characters to the viewer — individually and together.
Without relying on clunky flashbacks, Cooper and his co-writers deftly backfill everything we need to understand about Alex and Tess’s marriage: their dynamic, their deep bond, and the quiet resentments that led them to this point. It’s a testament to the script’s economy and precision that so much emotional history is conveyed through dialogue and behavior alone.
Arnett and Dern are perfectly cast and share an easy, lived-in chemistry. Their familiarity with one another oozes off the screen, and they capture the many layers of a long-term relationship in crisis. Their scenes together — the emotional crux of the film — are by turns romantic, combative, heavily barbed, and darkly funny.
And how refreshing it is to see an age-appropriate female lead in a film like this. Dern, an undisputed acting legend, has more than the chops to pull off a role of this complexity, but it’s also worth noting how rare it still is for Hollywood to cast women who are contemporaries of their male co-stars. Dern, who is actually three years older than Arnett in real life, is a powerful rebuttal to that tired trend. She’s flirty, charismatic, and yes, sexy throughout the film. More of this, please.
Bradley Cooper’s Camera Work Is Perfect — As Is His Supporting Performance
Will Arnett Is This Thing On?Image via Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures
Is This Thing On? marks Cooper’s third feature film as a director and his first in which he doesn’t cast himself as the lead. Instead, he appears in a supporting role as Balls (yes, Balls), a self-centered actor and Alex’s longtime best friend, whose own marriage (to Christine, played with delightful bite by Andra Day) is quietly unraveling, mostly unbeknownst to him. Balls is one of the film’s highlights, functioning as comic relief amid its more emotionally raw moments. Cooper is a riot here, and it’s refreshing to see him cut loose rather than playing the straight man.
The movie also marks Cooper’s debut as a camera operator, and the results are impressive. He shows a strong visual imagination, particularly in a standout transition where Alex storms out of an attic room and seamlessly enters a comedy club to perform. His naturalistic approach captures New York City with texture and specificity, from Alex’s bleak bachelor pad and the Manhattan stand-up scene to the Long Island suburb where Tess and the kids still live.
Notably, the stand-up sequences frequently linger in close-up on Arnett’s face, with no cutaways to the audience. It’s a bold choice, amplifying the awkwardness of Alex’s early performances and, in a later scene, making his emotional unraveling mid-show feel raw, intimate, and impossible to look away from. Uncomfortably intimate, and effectively so.
The Supporting Cast Elevates the Film’s World
Will Arnett Is This Thing On?Image via Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures
Beyond Cooper and Day — who serve as effective foils to Arnett and Dern’s central couple — the supporting cast is uniformly strong. From the young actors playing Alex and Tess’s sons to Alex’s well-meaning but overbearing parents, every role feels thoughtfully inhabited. Small, subtle comedic touches add texture, like Alex’s softspoken dad (the legendary Ciarán Hinds) constantly drinking the grandkids’ juice boxes or his mother (Christine Ebersole) unmistakably picking Tess over her own son in the divorce.
Will and Gracestar Sean Hayes and his real-life husband Scott Icenogle round out Alex and Tess’ crew of couple friends, giving fine but ultimately inconsequential performances — they’re perhaps the weakest characters of the bunch, and at a few moments it’s hard not to wonder why they’re even there, almost as though extra scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Even Alex’s stand-up friends, though minor roles, seem better drawn and more dynamic than those two. The care put into giving that group distinct personalities and relationship to Alex also make the world feel fully-formed. He tumbles headfirst into this subsection of the comedy world, and it’s very sweet the way they rise up to meet him. (And a sexual encounter with one is played off with a refreshing casualness and lack of drama.)
The film also features a handful of delightfully unexpected cameos, including appearances by real-life comedians like Sam Jay. Most bizarrely (and amusingly), Peyton Manning pops up in a minor role as Laird, an old friend of Tess’s who semi-accidentally winds up on a date with her.
Is This Thing On? blows past any preconceived notions of what a midlife-crisis dramedy can or should be. Anchored by outstanding performances from Arnett and Dern, buoyed by their captivating chemistry, and capped with a quietly romantic, understated conclusion, the film is both a showcase for Arnett as a dramatic actor and one of the most genuinely heartfelt movies of the year.
Release Date
December 19, 2025
Runtime
121 minutes
Director
Bradley Cooper
Writers
Mark Chappell, Bradley Cooper, John Bishop, Will Arnett
Pros & Cons
Stellar performances from Arnett and Dern.
Cooper shines in a supporting role and behind the camera.
A witty, tight script that effortlessly balances multiple tones.
A satisfying ending that feels fully earned.
A few characters feel superfluous.