Is This Thing On?

Bradley Cooper's third film as a director. Alex lives in New York and has two children. His marriage is quietly ending. During the divorce he goes to an open mic night one evening and gets up on stage. Then he goes again. In time stand-up becomes not an escape but the only place he can explain himself. The second line is his wife Tess. The film tells her side too: the room she has given the family for years, the work she left, and not knowing now what to do. The idea is that one separation is two different stories for two people, and the film listens to both. Will Arnett and Bradley Cooper wrote the script together; Arnett also plays Alex. The starting point is the life of the English comedian John Bishop. Some of the stage sections were shot in a real comedy club in New York. Laura Dern plays Tess. It opened in December 2025. A warm choice for anyone who likes character-driven American drama and is curious about the stand-up world. For a viewer expecting dense comedy, the film is essentially a drama about separation; the stage sections are only one part of it.