Entertainment
Here’s Why Bradley Cooper Crashed and Burned in His Latest Streaming Movie
It’s a long fall from Bradley Cooper’s beloved directorial debut of A Star is Born to his latest project, Is This Thing On? On its surface, it looked like it could be exciting and new—how many movies are there about stand-up comedy, after all? But what initially seems like another promising Cooper directorial project falls pretty flat upon watching.
Shrouded by the plot point of stand-up, this is pretty much your basic “rediscovering purpose in middle age” story. You’d think with such a tired narrative, Cooper would’ve at least made an effort to portray stand-up authentically, or have some captivating characters you can’t help but fall in love with. But nope—he didn’t do any of that.
Sadly, even Will Arnett, Laura Dern, and Peyton Manning (yes—Peyton Manning) couldn’t save this one.
There’s Nothing New in ‘Is This Thing On?’
This movie really has nothing new going on. You might be initially intrigued by the plot of a guy going through a divorce (Alex, played by Will Arnett) getting involved in the New York comedy scene, but once you actually press play, that feeling doesn’t linger.
The idea of a man trying stand-up is old news at this point. Stand-up is arguably at its peak right now—with the significant increase in Netflix’s stand-up comedy portfolio, along with clips of crowd work often going viral on social media, there are more avenues than ever for people to be successful at stand-up. And who typically believes they’re funny enough to try stand-up? Men. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the problem is this: most men (and just people in general) are not funny enough to do stand-up. So what we’re left with is a bunch of dudes talking at us through a microphone, thinking what they’re saying is clever and interesting, when it’s just unoriginal and tasteless.
In Is This Thing On? the protagonist, Alex, isn’t any different, and he doesn’t get a free pass just because he’s separating from Laura Dern (who plays Tess). Put the mic down and go home to your kids, Alex.
‘Is This Thing On?’ Portrays Stand-Up Inaccurately
One aspect of this movie audiences might look forward to, especially if you’re a stand-up comedy fan, is the portrayal of the endlessly fascinating and complex stand-up scene (especially in New York City, where this film is set). Sadly, this is another area where Cooper lets us down.
Alex’s first time doing stand-up goes unbelievably well. After putting his name down on the open mic list just so he doesn’t have to pay a cover to drink at the bar, Alex’s name is called, and he saunters onstage with no plan, no bits, not even a joke or two scribbled on a cocktail napkin. Despite all this, he gets laughs from the crowd, most of which are far too enthusiastic for the actual “jokes” he’s telling. If you’ve ever been to an open mic, you already know you’re lucky to have an audience that’s more than just the one or two comedians going up after you, let alone a responsive audience, like the one Alex performs for the first time.
The supportive, tight-knit community feel of the stand-up scene in this movie is sweet—it’s also not true. Sure, it’s conceivable that some friendships can be formed doing stand-up comedy, but other comedians smiling at you after your first-ever set, telling you how great it was and asking you to stay and have a drink with them is just usually not what happens. Veteran comics are generally wary of novice comics, either looking down on them or ignoring them entirely because they expect they won’t stick around long anyway. This is probably even more so the case for the New York stand-up scene, where the competition is that much more intense.
The best thing that comes of the whole stand-up subplot are the appearances of Dave Attell and Jordan Jensen (Jordan, if you’re reading this, this review is nothing against you, you’re perfect). Still, both of them are barely in it, so that should tell you something.
There Are No Likable Characters in ‘Is This Thing On?’
With all of this failure to meet expectations, you’d think Cooper would at least create characters who were either so likable or interesting you couldn’t help but care about them. Sadly, none of these characters are that.
Alex feels like a copy-and-paste archetype of a guy experiencing middle-aged malaise who needs to discover his zeal for life again, and his wife Tess is pretty much the female version of this. Maybe she’d be more interesting if her storyline got a little more attention, but again, this is a story very much interested in the man’s side of things, so we don’t get to know Tess nearly as well as Alex.
Then there are the supporting characters. Cooper himself plays “Balls,” an arrogant, obnoxiously outgoing actor. He and his wife Christine (Andra Day) are close friends of Alex and Tess, and towards the end of the film, the tables are turned, and it’s revealed there’s a bit more going on below the surface of their relationship. You might see why Cooper would want to incorporate another couple into the story—it’s a way to show how Alex and Tess interact not only with each other, but with other people, and how that changes over the course of the movie as their relationship evolves—but it’s a bit less effective when the characters are insufferable. Balls is an attention-hungry, selfish jerk, and Tess is kind of judgmental and rude. It’s hard to find any reason to care about either of them. There are a few others within the friend group, but even the smaller ones seem utterly unlikable and pretentious.
Although the stage might’ve been set for a killer of a story, Cooper’s Is This Thing On? flops in every way. Is it funny? Not really. Is it heartfelt? Barely. Is the best part Jordan Jensen’s five minutes of collective screen time? Absolutely (seriously, Jordan, you’re perfect and we love you).
- Release Date
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December 19, 2025
- Runtime
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121 minutes
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