The 2025 film that felt the most real to me was one of the year’s final releases. Bradley Cooper’s (A Star Is Born, Maestro) is a poignant and personal look at the end of a marriage and the lengths we will go to overcome the loss that accompanies it. Will Arnett (Semi-Pro, Blades of Glory) delivers the best performance of his career as Alex, recently divorced from Tess (Laura Dern – Wild, Jay Kelly), trying to navigate a life in a new apartment and spending half as much time with his two elementary school-aged boys while still maintaining his career and career for his physical, mental, and emotional health. To escape his troubles, he ends up at a bar one night and on stage for an improv comedy skit.
Is This Thing On? is Cooper’s softest, most intimate film as a director. Cooper has always been able to bring human emotion to his characters, whether in front of or behind the camera. Cooper’s two previous directorial efforts (A Star Is Born, Maestro) each earned him a Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar nomination. In Is This Thing On?, Cooper gives Arnett the reins to carry the film’s lead role. Arnett will not earn an Oscar nomination in this film, but that was never a goal. In a way, Is This Thing On? is the anti-A Star Is Born. It’s not nearly as bosterious, ambitious, or self-seeking. Unlike Jack and Ally, who each seek a life of fame, Alex and Tess are your typical white-collar working, suburban living, family of four, mother and father, next-door neighbors. There is nothing glamorous or spectacular about either. Much like Cooper’s other films, this story examines a new complex relationship, follows another deeply flawed protagonist, and again places artistic expression at the center of the character’s personal evolution.
We spend most of our time with Alex. While we are never explicitly told the cause of their divorce, we see early on that it is recent, they are amicable with each other, committed to co-parenting, and trying to navigate the awkwardness of their new dynamic. It is easy to tell that there was and is love in their relationship, but that something (time, communication issues, drifting in different directions) caused it to end. The end of a meaningful romantic relationship (whether or not it’s a marriage) is something many of us can relate to. Cooper handles the subject matter with tenderness and care.
Though it seems as if they have joint custody, Tess lives in the house. When the boys are with Alex, they stay in his two-bedroom apartment. The boys seem well adjusted to this living arrangement, which makes it seem like the separation-turned-divorce had been a long time coming, and that it’s just the fine details they are getting used to. However, this film wasn’t about the boys either. They were needed to make Alex and Tess’s relationship even more dynamic. Young children, of course, make it much more difficult for a clean break. Feeling like a guest when stepping into your former home to pick up your kids before school cannot be easy for anyone, no matter how strong you are or how cordial the separation might be.
Alex finds himself adrift. Despite his commitment to co-parenting and trying to preserve a delicate friendship with Tess, he struggles when he’s not at work or with his kids. He struggles to understand who he is without her. Everything changes the night he wanders into a New York City comedy club during open-mic. On impulse, he takes the stage. To his own astonishment, he’s a hit with the audience. Soon, he is frequenting the club and getting on stage to tell jokes whenever he can. When the audience laughs, there are glimmers of hope that this could be something that gets him from one day to the next. He begins connecting with many of the others who take their chances performing in front of a crowd. They become a source of comfort, with a few becoming close friends in the process. Most of what he shares is from his personal experiences, with the adage that you talk about what you know. Much of this is about his new life. The sharing of some of his most personal thoughts in an environment that welcomes him and in a way that displays growth rather than sorrow is Alex’s catharsis and road to recovery.
Cooper works magic with his lead characters. He effectively takes Alex and Tess through the aftermath of their beautiful breakup. He advances each individual’s story over a 124-minute runtime that felt much quicker, yet left us with characters we met as strangers and came to know intimately by the film’s conclusion. Cooper gave us two sympathetic characters who we see doing their best to manage in this relatable yet uninviable situation. Along the way, the former partners see sides of each other they had never known or had missed. Arnett and Dern might not seem like a pair that would have worked for this role at first glance. Arnett is known primarily for his comedic work, while Dern is better known for her dramatic roles. Is This Thing On? captures the best of each actor’s skill set, offering Arnett a chance at something more dramatic and Dern something more lighthearted than usual. The dynamic worked.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 9.75/10
Character Chemistry 9.5/10
Acting 9.5/10
Screenplay 9.25/10
Directing 9.25/10
Cinematography 9.25/10
Sound 9.75/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
93.25%
A-
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