Well…is it?

Out in theatres now; Is This Thing On? is a surprisingly high quality dramedy and while it’s not quite the awards bait it thinks it is, it’s adjacent enough to that territory to be one of the better films of the year.

As their marriage quietly unravels, Alex (Will Arnett) faces middle age and an impending divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess (Laura Dern) confronts the sacrifices she made for their family—forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether their love can take a new form.

Inspired by the true story of British comedian John Bishop, star Will Arnett and director Bradley Cooper (both of whom worked on the screenplay) have managed to give us something so uniquely human that it manages to defy any kind of genre convention and allows us to get into the shoes of a genuine slice of life which manages to be happy, sad, ridiculous and poignant all at the same time.

Coming off the incredibly bold but occasionally misguided bio of Leonard Bernstein Maestro, Cooper rediscovers the intimate power of the lens in keeping it tightly focused on our protagonist and hero Alex.

Capturing the intimacy of your typical stand up night club he puts us straight into the thick of it all as we see Alex discover this on an evening that began with self-pity but also gave him a light at the end of the rainbow of the personal upheaval that he’s navigating his way through.  Cooper makes New York feel vibrant with these pockets of possibility as his journey towards the ‘new normal’ takes him to places he didn’t expect.

Stepping back to a supporting role (all be it a scene stealing one) Bradley Cooper truly cements himself here as an actor’s director as the entire ensemble is allowed room to breathe and let us see not only the complexities of life, but also the stand-up circuit.

Like all things in life, Alex bombs the first time on stage….and many others after that but in the verbalization of the life that he’s experiencing (and never really wanted to) Cooper and Arnett give us something where we see a middle aged man going through the process of actually finding himself, quite possibly for the first time.  Not only is the whole ride a positive affirmation for the need for mental self-care and that ability to talk things out, but it allows us a glimpse into the realities of men going through divorce and how much they need to ‘talk it out’ like anyone else would.  There’s rarely been a positive pop culture example of a middle aged man in emotional crisis, but this actually does an exceptional job of it all.

Much of that credit goes to Arnett, who by his own admission has spent much of his career “comedy-adjacent’ but here he throws himself into the awkward minutia of being a storyteller on stage and laying himself bare while still being pretty damn funny.  It’s easily the performance of his career and while it fell short of awards recognition it’s no less worthy then anyone vying for a trophy this awards season.

Laura Dern is underrated as usual as his wife/ex-wife Tess matching the emotionally confusing energy that a divorce can stir up in the best of us.  Bradley Cooper manages to chew the scenery in a few scenes as his old college friend ‘Balls’ (I’m not making that up) with the headstrong Andra Day as his wife.

Some other comedy luminaries show up in this with the likes of Sean Hayes, Amy Sedaris and (for some reason) Peyton Manning all doing good work but the real supporting standout is Ciaran Hinds as Alex’s empathetic father Jan; a man who we can see wishes he could have broken free of the expectation of how men are ‘supposed’ to act when something goes wrong in their lives.

While Is This Thing On? Isn’t poised for a memorable awards season run it does something unique that will allow it to have audiences long after the trophies have been passed out.  It’s an affirmation to the importance of mental health for men and that talking out your problems is actually a sign of strength instead of the tired stereotype of it being a weakness, even when you are doing it on stage in front of a bunch of strangers.  It’s because while we never think about it in the moment, we can relate to the realities of going through some sort of emotional upheaval in our lives.