“Is This Thing On?” sets itself up as a comedy-drama about reinvention, but ultimately feels insular and uneven. The movie is bad overall, and Bradley Cooper should not be making (or directing) movies like this-at least not ones that fail to deliver on their implicit promises of comedy or insight.
Will Arnett’s Alex – a divorced dad who turns to stand-up comedy to make sense of his new life – should be a compelling emotional anchor, but the film never quite earns the shifts it asks us to believe. Instead of a satisfying journey, the narrative drifts between scenes without a strong sense of stakes or meaningful transformation. The story arc is weak and unsatisfying, meandering through long takes and sluggish pacing that feel indulgent rather than purposeful. The film implicitly promises comedy or insight but doesn’t deliver either-the stand-up scenes skim the surface of Alex’s pain without letting the comedy or the drama land, and the emotional beats don’t have real consequences.
It feels like a Hollywood insider movie that only makes sense if you’re already part of that world. The characters inhabit a comfortable, relatively affluent slice of life that feels removed from broader relatability-divorced coffee conversations, stand-up comedy scenes, and suburban parenting dynamics that read as emotionally sophisticated but ultimately insular. The film doesn’t lean into industry politics or fame, but it operates in a bubble of privilege that makes its struggles feel weightless.
Characters are flat, predictable, and underdeveloped. Laura Dern’s Tess has an interesting parallel arc reconnecting with her athletic identity, yet her story and Alex’s seldom feel fully integrated, making the emotional payoff seem unearned. Her character is pushed to the margins, receiving far less exploration than Alex despite her promising setup. Supporting characters-including Bradley Cooper’s turn as Alex’s friend Balls-are often seen as nice texture but undercooked with little payoff. Will Arnett is good, and his subdued, self-deprecating performance shows vulnerability, but his talent is wasted by a movie that doesn’t give him material worthy of his abilities.
The resolution is unearned-things “work out,” but there’s no clear reason why. The film pivots toward Alex and Tess tentatively reuniting or reconnecting at the end, but this shift feels forced, like a conventional lightened exit rather than a natural culmination of the messy emotional groundwork laid earlier. The ending relies on convenience rather than growth or causality. After beginning with raw, almost brutal honesty about heartbreak and personal disintegration, the film opts for softness in its final act-favoring reconnections and hope over exploring deeper pain or leaving things wholly unresolved. This undercuts the earlier intensity and makes the entire journey feel pointless.
The film ultimately doesn’t justify its own existence. While critics have praised the performances and moments of warmth, too much of the storytelling feels unfocused and too polite to take emotional risks. It’s a film about rediscovery that sometimes forgets what it wanted to discover. The worst sin isn’t offensiveness-it’s being insular, boring, and forgettable. For a movie that takes its time letting audiences settle into character, it offers little in return: no sharp twists, no high stakes, no meaningful transformation, and no lasting impact beyond the recognition that you’ve just watched two hours of people who don’t seem to matter much, even to themselves.