"Is This Thing On?" Bradley Cooper’s Joke Without a Punchline

This year's New York Film festival had no shortage of exciting new projects by some of the best creative minds the industry has to offer. This year, the film that received the honor of closing out the festival was Bradley Cooper's latest directorial project, Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern. But after just a few minutes of sitting in the theater, the question I found myself asking was, “Is this thing working?”

After Cooper directed the formally adventurous Maestro, he teamed up with writer-star Will Arnett to create a more stripped-down character study, feeling closer to a David O. Russell film. The recently separated Alex Noval (Arnett) lives apart from his wife, Tess (Laura Dern), and two sons in Greenwich Village. After eating a weed brownie, he stumbles upon a comedy club where, to get out of the cover charge, he performed his first open mic. The lights, the reaction, and the adrenaline rush lead him to develop a love for stand-up, taking on a hidden life as a comedian – Dad by day, funny man by night. Does this work? By the end, I decided no, because Alex, despite his trials and tribulations, never had anything to lose.

Is Alex at risk of losing his possessions? No. We never see Alex go to work, but we know from a conversation in the first act that Alex works in finance. His apartment in Greenwich is not any run-down fixer-upper. It looks like a movie apartment, almost identical to the divorcee apartment where Adam Driver stays in Marriage Story. It is always clear that Alex comes from wealth and is able to carry himself. His separation leads to no financial struggle – in fact, he buys himself a new car during this time. His time as a comedian does not take away from his work. Or does it? We never see. A more interesting film would present a character in separation developing an artistic passion, but burdened with the responsibility of finances and family. How much stronger of a character would Alex be if he lived paycheck to paycheck. But in the universe of this film, there is no such thing as poverty.

Is Alex at risk of losing his wife? In a marital sense, yes, but their relationship never goes below amicable. They have minor fights regarding their happiness within the relationship, but never to the point of harming their bond as human beings. The one moment of tension comes when Tess discovers Alex’s comedy career. Mistakenly stumbling onto Alex’s biggest set to date, Tess is forced to hear him talk about his sexual relationship with another woman, how much he complains about his wife, and the jaundice of marriage. Tess, after hearing Alex’s set, gets her moment to confront him on the street. Her reaction – it’s hot. Never in this film is there a risk that something will be lost in Alex and Tess’s relationship. Their love may be dulling, but they will not lose each other. It is clear their family relationship is strong so they will not lose their kids. So what is there to lose?

Is This Thing On? lacks any dramatic tension, leading to a mediocre romance film that yearns to be richer in subtext. I imagine Cooper and Arnett were attracted to the story, based on the life of British comedian John Bishop, because, like them, it showed someone who was able to reinvent themselves in middle age. Cooper is reinventing himself as a filmmaker, Arnett is reinventing himself as a serious actor. But what good is there if they do not understand that risk comes with everything?

Not everyone is made of money, not everyone has a perfect martial life, not everyone has a great relationship with their children – so why are we invested in Alex Novak? He has it all, and in the end, realizes he can have everything he had before, plus his comedy career. Despite its formal ambition, Maestro buried itself in attempting to be a queer character exploration and a traditional biopic – with a dash of West Side Story in the mix. I am not sure what Is This Thing On? wants to be but if you asked me, “Is this thing working,” I would respond, “No.”