Is This Thing On?

Basing a film on real events can offer filmmakers a comfort blanket and, along with it, a misplaced confidence. This may be the root cause of the problems in Bradley Cooper's comedy, Is This Thing On? which pursues authenticity with dogged determination.

Based on Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop's real-life story, the screenplay is written by Cooper, Will Arnett (who plays the lead character Alex Novak), and Mark Chappell. The story begins when Alex's wife Tess (Laura Dern), a former volleyball star who has grown resentful after giving up on her dreams to raise a family, decides to call time on their marriage. He's rocked by her announcement, and one night, after missing the train for the commute home and in need of a drink, Alex winds up outside the Comedy Cellar, in New York's West Village. The only problem is he has no money, but the entry is free for anyone who puts their name down to do a set. So, that's how Alex ends up on stage in front of a room full of strangers taking aim at being a fortysomething guy who works in finance, with two kids and a soon-to-be ex-wife.

To his surprise, he's a natural (or so the filmmakers want us to believe), and riding a cathartic or therapeutic high, he becomes a regular.

Is This Thing On? should have reaped the rewards of Cooper's diligence, who had Arnett prepare by doing live stand-up in the months ahead of production, before eventually shooting the stand-up scenes in front of a live crowd at the Comedy Cellar. Cooper even cast comedians that regularly do sets there and the real-life manager plays the part in the film. Despite going to great pains to create something genuine rather than something wholly contrived, for a huge chunk of its 124-minutes the film falls flat. What should have been a pleasant, even a heartwarming and humorous story about the way life knocks us down and asks if we're able to pick ourselves up, is crippled by a screenplay that sets itself up to fail.

One of the film's glaring problems, ironically, is cause for praise. Cooper plays Alex's best friend Balls, who enters with a bombastic clumsiness. Cooper puts his energy into crafting a layered character with different, even surprising sides. While he's to be remembered as being quirky, goofy and bombastic, in a later scene he shows an alternative side to his personality when he offers his best friend sage advice. Cooper might turn in a great performance, but it's simply out of place here.

Balls is one of those supporting characters that might just steal the film from the lead, but this might be symptomatic of the fact that in its current iteration, the film should have been an ensemble piece. The filmmakers are clearly confident in Alex's capability to carry the film, but Balls and his wife Christine (Andra Day) are the ones that pique our interest. There's an edge to their relationship, something that suggests they're both dysfunctional personalities, and that their seemingly combustible relationship must be destined to implode. And yet, out of what appears to be a doomed relationship emerges a strong bond that can stand the stress test, despite him being seemingly more like a migraine than a life partner.

As a character, Alex is at his strongest in the heart-to-heart scenes he shares with Tess towards the end of the film. For example, the moment when he tells her that he wasn't happy in their marriage, but he wasn't unhappy with their marriage. Up until this point, there are things she can't tell Alex because he's either not ready to listen or he simply cannot understand. Tess therefore needs to take a back seat, and in Dern the filmmakers have an actress that can find a psychological and emotional depth inside a compelling but deceptively muted performance. And yet Tess is a mostly forgettable part, because the film struggles under the weight of the lethargic and mostly uninteresting Alex, even if we do sympathise with him.

The inherent weakness is that Is This Thing On? relies on the emotional culmination of Alex and Tess' journey. For much of the film, there's a lack of detail because the filmmakers are unwilling to sink more into cliché — Alex's fleeting one-night stand with a fellow comedian could have been used to explore the heart-wrenching pain of moving on. Also, what of Alex's day job in finance? It's casually dismissed as he's left reeling after Tess' declaration. This is a problem, in that Alex isn't a well-rounded character nor is the film allowed to sit in those difficult episodes Alex is going through.

There are, however, moments when the film shines, like when one night on stage, Alex's routine descends into an angry rant. Helped by the way Cooper and his cinematographer Matthew Libatique shoot the stand-up sets in tight and up close, it genuinely allows the audience to connect with Alex, and feel the place of pain his comedy comes from. Is This Thing On? has other moments where the writing, directing and performances show it can shine, but unfortunately, it just struggles to.

Is This Thing On? Played in the Gala section of the 69th BFI London Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the UK on 30th January.

Reviewed on: 28 Dec 2025