“There’s a fine line between comedy… and a lonely, middle-aged man talking about his problems to a roomful of strangers. Okay, you’re probably as relieved as I am to know that our time is up for today, thank you, I’ve been Alex Novak.”
There’s a certain type of film that puts on the façade of being a dramedy about late middle-age, but then suddenly wallops you right in the feels. Is This Thing On?, directed by Bradley Cooper from a script he co-wrote with Will Arnett and Mark Chappell, happens to be exactly that kind of film: an amusing, gently devastating surprise, which somehow manages to feel warmly comforting—like bumping into an old friend who understands precisely what’s happening inside your head.
Alex Novak (Will Arnett) is not enjoying himself. He’s staring down middle age and moving into a lousy little Manhattan apartment that looks like it came pre-furnished with regret and bad decisions, as he works out the inevitable divorce from his wife of 20 years, Tess. He loves his kids, cherishes the limited time with them, and has no earthly idea what comes next.
Enter stand-up comedy—specifically an open mic night at New York’s legendary Comedy Cellar where Alex discovers that somehow bombing onstage hurts less than sitting alone with his thoughts. As it turns out, comedy is way cheaper than therapy and just as revealing.
Arnett channels the very neurotic energy that made BoJack Horseman and Arrested Development so memorable, yet he grounds it in something much more tender. Watching Alex flub his lines with jokes that were never quite fully formed reflects his emotional state: awkward, searching, and hoping someone laughs so he knows he still exists. Cooper expertly directs, avoiding any showy flourishes. Instead, opting for intimacy, restraint adn extreme close-ips. There is no courtroom melodrama, and no shouting in the rain; just two people quietly unpacking the ruins of a long marriage.
Tess, on the other side of that marriage, played by Laura Dern, mixes steel and softness that feels real to the core. A former Olympic volleyball sensation who gave up that life to raise a family is now coming to grips with the sacrifices she made while putting her family on hold. While Alex rediscovers himself through comedy, Tess rediscovers herself through coaching, slowly reassembling those parts of herself broken and lost long ago in slow discovery. Dern doesn’t play her Tess as a villain or saint. She’s just a woman doing her best with the choices that used to make sense and are now so impossibly complicated.
Warmth and comic relief is brought by Bradley Cooper’s over-the-top and heavily-bearded, Balls, by Andra Day’s casually glamorous Christine, and by real-life couple Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle portraying Stephen and Geoffrey, whose shared-friend awkwardness will be painfully familiar to anyone who’s ever attended a post-divorce dinner party. These scenes crackle with observational comedy, recalling the conversational intimacy of Marriage Story with the gentle humor of Enough Said.
What makes Is This Thing On? resonate is its refusal to declare a winner or loser in the divorce. It’s not about falling out of love so much as what love looks like when it changes shape. The film asks, quietly but insistently: can commitment evolve without disappearing? Can happiness be redefined without erasing the past?
By the time Queen’s “Under Pressure” kicks in for a perfectly chosen finale, the answer feels less like a conclusion and more like a deep exhale. Honest, frequently heartbreaking, and often funny, Is This Thing On? is a beautifully human portrait of reinvention — proof that sometimes losing the plot is exactly how you find your voice again.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 121 mins
Director: Bradley Cooper
Writer: Bradley Cooper; Will Arnett; Mark Chappell
Cast: Will Arnett; Bradley Cooper, Andra Day
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Official Site: https://www.searchlightpictures.com/is-this-thing-on
Release Date: December 19, 2025
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: As their marriage unravels, Alex faces middle age and divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene. Meanwhile, his wife Tess confronts sacrifices made for their family, forcing them to navigate co-parenting and identities.
