RATING
Director(s): Bradley Cooper
Country: United States
Author: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Mark Chappell
Actor(s): Will Arnet, Laura Dern, Andra Day
Written by Tom Augustine
Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s grandiose biopic detailing the life of Leonard Bernstein, is the kind of film a person can only make when they’ve got a head of steam about themselves, someone with total surety that they’re in the midst of crafting a masterpiece. Cooper not only wrote and directed, but starred as Bernstein, crafting a film of egregious ambition less about Bernstein than about Cooper himself, as though the actor-director were refracting his own persona through Bernstein’s prism. The only problem: Maestro is not that great masterpiece, something that an eager public were ready to pounce on, dinging Cooper for what was perceived to be unearned pretension. Maestro is incoherent, and undoubtedly overwrought — but it’s also pretty good, earning a lot of the portentousness that it carries around itself and featuring a genuinely fine performance from Cooper (prosthetic nose controversy aside). The narrative of Maestro’s failure, deserved or not, was enough to undo much of the street cred that Cooper amassed for his A Star Is Born update, the film I personally would have given Best Picture in a famously weak year for movies (First Reformed or You Were Never Really Here were the true ‘Best Pictures’, but neither garnered any such nomination). A lovely melding of pop sensibilities and genuine directorial vision, the film was a blinder of a debut for the director who had already undergone a metamorphosis in transitioning from a comedic actor to a dramatic one (to wit: in 2011 Cooper appeared in The Hangover Part II, one of the worst blockbuster comedies ever made, while in 2012 he was competing for his first Oscar in Silver Linings Playbook). Instead, Green Book won.
If Is This Thing On? seems comparatively small-scale, one imagines that’s the point. Cooper has revealed himself to be a far more fascinating and tortured artist than it might have been possible to give him credit for early in his career, when he made a name for himself playing handsome assholes. His talent as a filmmaker, though, is to craft very fine, very American pictures, ones that have a sense of Hollywood classicism to them which he can then gently unpick, revealing elements that one might typify as quintessentially French. Is This Thing On?, right down to its double-meaning title, has more than a little of James L Brooks’ style in its makeup, but Cooper wears the mask very well. A surprisingly modest dramedy, Is This Thing On? is based on a true story, that of British comedian John Bishop, who came to the profession by chance, signing up to an Open Mic event at a local bar to avoid a four-pound cover charge. Bishop had just gotten a divorce, and quickly made a habit of performing at the club, treating it a little like counselling. The basic outlines of this story are transposed onto Is This Thing On?, moving to New York, ensuring that Cooper can set his story in and around the iconic Comedy Cellar and other such establishments, and spotlighting up-and-coming comedians on the scene. Will Arnett stars as Alex Novak, whose life is falling apart after an amicable split from his wife Tess (Laura Dern), and so stumbles onto a stage, mic in hand, where he feels compelled to share his current state of affairs, only to find that he’s getting laughs for it. As both he and Tess struggle to acclimatise to single life, Alex goes back to the club repeatedly in secret. Naturally, New York is not so big a city that such a secret can stay hidden for long.
Bradley Cooper shakes off the cobwebs of his failed bid for Oscar glory with this warm, understated romantic dramedy. Based on the true story of British standup comedian John Bishop, it’s a film that thrives on the chemistry and prowess of its lead actors Will Arnett and Laura Dern.
Standup comedy is a key element of Is This Thing On?, but it frequently cedes the spotlight to Alex and Tess’ romantic crisis. More than anything, the film is a showcase for the largely untapped dramatic talents of Arnett (a longtime friend of Cooper’s) and a reminder of the greatness of Dern, who may be just slightly slumming it in appearing in this film. Her presence, as arguably the finest living American actor of her generation, elevates the film immeasurably, and provides a crucial foil for Arnett, who sells his character’s tentativeness as a standup through his own foray into drama. He avails himself especially well — there’s a lovely moment where the two split for the first time, Alex waving goodbye to Tess as she rides away on the subway, and his voice, calling out that he’ll be fine, quavers with heartbreaking vulnerability. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Arnett has this dramatic power within him — many of the greatest comedic actors carry great sadness within themselves (see Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, even Adam Sandler), and yet, it is. Dern, against him, trawls remarkable depths for a role that a lesser actor probably wouldn’t come close to — an absolutely pivotal scene plays out entirely on her face in closeup, wordless, as she transitions from shock to anger to doubt to desire and back again, and Dern sells every moment. Is This Thing On? is as much Tess’ story as Alex’, an evident result of Cooper’s realisation that you don’t give Dern a part like this without expecting her to make a meal of it.
In the process, the film comes to feel like a big exhale for Cooper, a chance to loosen up and get a little less self-serious — an intention he backs up by appearing in a supporting role as Alex’ friend ‘Balls’, a bohemian actor. In absolute contrast to Maestro, Cooper’s new film doesn’t call attention to itself, allowing for its moments of poeticism to jump out and surprise us. A scene that I’ve already discovered to be divisive, talking to other critics who have seen the film, finds Alex and Tess’ friends, together on a group holiday, making breakfast and spontaneously breaking out into song. Some I’ve spoken to have hated it; I found it to be rather moving. As with most actor-turned-directors, Cooper has a strong sense of how to bring great performances out of his actors, but he backs it up with assurance of creative vision. The film has a modest but robust visual sensibility, one that readily hearkens back to Brooks’ style with films like Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, films that never called attention to their direction and yet find themselves being evoked time and again by the filmmakers they inspired. Is This Thing On? has the undeniable tone of a minor key, but that’s hardly a bad thing for a filmmaker who has risen so astronomically over the course of just three pictures. He’s a director who wears ‘down to earth’ well.
Is This Thing On? is in cinemas now.