The Motion Picture Podcast
Join Luke and Jackson as they review and discuss all things related to film.
The Motion Picture Podcast
Is This Thing On? (Movie Review)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Luke and Jackson review "Is This Thing On?", co-written by Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett and directed by Bradley Cooper.
Hey everyone, my name's Luke, and welcome to the Motion Picture Podcast. I'm joined here today with my friend Jackson, and today we'll be talking about Is This Thing On? Is This Thing On?
SPEAKER_02Alright, Crickets, Awesome. Is This Thing On? Is a 2025 film directed by Bradley Cooper and co-written by Will Arnett. It stars both Will Arnett, Bradley Cooper, Laura Dern, and some other people I don't know.
SPEAKER_00You may also know Will Arnett from the Reese's commercials. Does the voiceovers in those pretty talented guy?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, he's pretty good in this movie. This is Bradley Cooper's third movie. First being a Star is born, second, Maestro. And now is this thing on? I haven't seen Maestro yet. When did he direct that? That came out a couple years ago. Um, personally, it felt like Oscar Bait, to be honest, but it was a solid movie. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, wanted to start out, ask you what did you think about Will Arnett and his performance?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I really liked Will Arnett's performance. I thought he brought a lot of humanity to his character and made me really feel for him as he was walking through this divorce. And then also seeing the way he subtly lit up as he discovered stand-up comedy. It was it was a really um good performance, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I definitely agree. It was definitely a raw performance, but I don't think I necessarily expected that. I think the only thing I've really seen him in is in arrested development where he played Job, but he's probably one of the most underrated characters in that show. Yeah. I mean, but super funny, and I think he really expanded that acting range from comedy to drama. And I think he has a really you know broader acting range than a lot of people give him credit for.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. I definitely thought he did a really good job, and it was not a performance I was expecting from him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What did you think of the other performances, Laura Dern?
SPEAKER_00I think I think she had a good performance. I I think the movie was written well for the main characters, even Balls, the movie was written well for Balls, Bradley Cooper's character. I don't know Balls' last name, although he goes by Balls. I don't think the the dialogue was written super well for the side characters, their friends. Um, yeah, you know, when your name is Balls, do you really need a last name? Yeah, yeah. And and when you're the director of the show, you probably gave yourself some interesting dialogue in general.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Personally, I just remember Laura Dern was in Jurassic Park, she was the main lady. Yeah, you remember that? And then I also know she was in Marriage Story, which I do not love that movie. She played the divorce lawyer. I don't know if I've seen that. Yeah, that movie was pretty somber. It's by Noah Bombach, came out like in 2017, I believe. Okay, and so that was not my favorite performance. And then I feel like I've seen her in a few other things, but this was um a movie where she was front and center, clearly, and I thought she did a good job. Her character, to be honest, kind of got on my nerves. Yeah, just felt very wishy-washy, and I feel like she didn't really have a reason other than just having kind of a crisis in her own life, and so I thought the way she played her kind of I don't know, didn't really grab me, honestly.
SPEAKER_00I don't know how you feel about that. No, I I'd agree. I think a big thing I was actually just thinking about is the whole movie really paints an internal picture of Will Arnett or Alex's internal thought processes, and it really builds up to where you understand why he's going through or you understand the actions he takes, and you don't really understand her actions necessarily. And I think you know, she's not really given or afforded the same type of benefit in that way. So I think if she had been, maybe some some of her actions would have made more sense. I think a lot of things didn't make sense to me, especially when like Will Arnett's character, Alex, uh put up that picture of her as the volleyball player when she was younger in his apartment and she was really upset about that. I felt like they, you know, it seems like a bit of a stretch to make that character, her character, upset about that, as if he should have had some family picture seemed like a bit of a stretch. Yeah. And some of like her reactions to things seemed like a bit of a stretch. Yeah. I don't know if she was really given the same build-up of that character.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we definitely spent most of our time with Will Arnett's character, and I feel as though that picture probably reminded her of her career, and that probably set her off down a spiral of oh, I was that was my identity for so long, and now I'm without that. Who am I? And maybe she needed that from her marriage and didn't get that from her marriage. But yes, like you said, we we spent a lot more time with Will Arnett and kind of figured out how he took he ticked and understood his character more be as he was developed more. So I felt like a lot was left on the table for Laura Dern.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Wanted to ask what was your favorite scene of the movie?
SPEAKER_02Hmm. Favorite scene, that's a great question. I think my favorite scene in the whole movie was in the beginning, whenever he finds the stand-up mic bar. Yeah, and he's trying to get in and he has to pay $15, but he doesn't have $15. I think he might be a little intoxicated. Yeah. And the bouncer tells him, Oh, you can do the open mic night to get in. And so he goes down and does the open mic night. And then there's, I think it's in the trailer, it's kind of his first foray into comedy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And it's actually pretty funny. It's honestly the funniest stand-up bit in the whole movie, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the other the other bits were a bit of like him just continuing the story of his divorce, which was kind of sad. But the first one was he was a little funny about it, but the start of it was a little awkward. Yeah. And him trying to learn how to actually create a bit out of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, something I really loved about that scene too was the camera work. It felt like you were really in the scene, if that makes sense. Like you were there with Will Arnett as he was doing stand-up and you were kind of in his head, yeah, as he was kind of fumbling through what he should say in front of the mic, because public speaking is terrifying, and I felt like that encapsulated that so well where there's this expectation on you to be funny, and you're just up there, kind of like a bumbling idiot, and then you kind of say something true that you're going through, and it kind of lands for him where the audience laughs, yeah. And then he can kind of just roll off with that. I just love that scene, it really showed us who the character was and what he's walking through, and I thought it was really well done.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd agree. I think the only other scene that I liked better than that, at least from the stand-up side, not because I didn't think the stand-up was funnier, was the scene where he was doing it in front of his wife and Peyton Manning's character. I think something about that scene, because he didn't know that she was out there and she wasn't gonna reveal herself, just you know, kept me on my toes, but made me laugh even before he even started talking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, how about that Peyton Manning jump scare cameo, though? I mean, that was that was really shocking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't understand that decision, but I have to say he's a good actor, but he's also in those insurance commercials as well. Yeah, he's one of those guys that I think could be a good actor, but he doesn't do work that I think highlights his skills.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was funny that he played a volleyball coach, or I think he coached volleyball in the context of the movie, but it was funny that they put him into a sports role.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, but the scene you going back to the conversation, the scene you were describing where Peyton Manning and Laura Dern go to the bar that he's performing at, his performance in that scene is pretty funny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think he did a pretty good job, all things considered.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so that's your favorite. Is that your favorite scene overall, or is that just your favorite stand-up scene?
SPEAKER_00I think that's my favorite stand-up scene. Okay, what's your favorite scene in the movie? My favorite scene in the movie, not because I necessarily like the second part of the scene, but I like the transition the best in whenever they're having the fight in the end, and that is it the oyster bay house. They're in the oyster bay house house, yeah, and they're kind of starting a fight, and he storms out of the the room, goes through the door, and it transitions to him walking on stage and just going on this rant. So it's almost like you didn't really know if he was actually doing it, or if it was like an internal monologue of him ranting about you know, all of his problems about how he hated love, he hated marriage, you know, how it was stupid, and then you realize it's real, and yeah, it's interesting how they transitioned into that. It was like almost like it was his internal dialogue up on stage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. That was such a cool transition. I I always appreciate a good transition like that, and that's an interesting thought you bring up. I never really thought about it that way, if that was real or an internal thing, because it kind of seemed like through his enjoyment of stand-up, maybe he retreated to that format, uh, or it was a cool way to switch that format to kind of explore what he was going through mentally and explore his inner monologue.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, it was almost like he couldn't express himself there in the moment, and that was his way of expressing himself.
SPEAKER_02I think there's probably something freeing about being up on stage like that in front of a bunch of strangers, and to his character at least, you could really tell that was an outlet for him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it it was interesting, especially that he couldn't express himself to his wife or soon-to-be ex-wife at the time in their normal interactions, but it really took him going through stand-up comedy and then her being in the audience at one point for him to really express how he felt and really express what he was going through for her to really see probably the real him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good point. So we've talked about Will Arnett, we've talked about Laura Dern, we've talked about Peyton Manning. What did you think about Laura Dern's friend?
SPEAKER_00I don't think they gave great dialogue to Laura Dern's friend. I think that was Christine right. I don't think they wrote in great dialogue. I don't know if they made her for some reason just naturally antagonistic over everything, but just you know, and I think I don't know if Bradley Cooper wrote it. Did he write it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. He co-wrote it with Will Arnett.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if they were trying to do some sort of character arc with her or try to explain her character in the end, where she essentially confessed to Will Arnett's character that she was so mean to him because she saw herself and him. It felt like a bit of a stretch to me. I don't know what you thought about that. Yeah, because she was married to butts, or I mean balls. Balls.
SPEAKER_02She was married to balls, balls, butts, same thing. And their marriage was really unhappy because balls is just an idiot character. He felt like a someone straight out of Seinfeld, yeah, and her character doesn't have much to work with, so that marriage is also imploding on the side, but it's not, it doesn't really have any gravitas because we don't know much about them as people because they're both played kind of as screwballs, other than her, she's more serious, but I didn't really get that dynamic. Um, but I wasn't a huge fan of her character, to be honest. She just kind of felt like one of those characters that's kind of just there and has a side and a bone to pick with the main character just to be an antagonist, and I did not enjoy a lot of her scenes, especially the amazing grace scene. Yeah, that was really obnoxious, and I don't know what I think I could understand the subtext of that being okay, they both need to show each other grace, they need to show themselves grace, but can you be any more on the nose with it? That was kind of obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd agree. I think maybe the only the only useful thing out of that character was a point of tension for the other characters. Yeah, I think it was used as a a device to push those characters in different directions and play around with their interactions. I think if they weren't involved, you would see their motivations a little differently, but other than that, it was more of a little bit of an annoyance, and I think they could have approached it a different way in the yeah, in the definitely underdeveloped, and I feel the same way about balls.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he didn't feel like he was in the right movie, to be honest. Like I said, he feels like Kramer's little brother from Seinfeld. I just felt like he was so out of place, and he was trying so Bradley Cooper was kind of trying so hard to be funny with him. I will say the milk scene in the opening when he trips and spills the milk, that killed me. But that was the funniest part of his character. After that, it kind of went downhill for him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was almost like that character said everything he thought, including like him being or not wanting Will Arnett's character to succeed because he wanted to be the one that succeeded and tried things, and it felt like really out of place for where the movie was headed. It felt like the movie was really trying to paint this internal internal turmoil with Will Arnett's character and really be both a comedy and a drama. But this was almost like a an unserious point of comedy, like a goofy comedy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was really interesting. But overall, Bradley Cooper, I just really enjoy Bradley Cooper, and so I thought he did, it was nice to see him in this movie, even though his character was definitely a doofus and didn't add much.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02If I don't think you've seen it, but he's in Licorice Pizza, the movie by Paul Thomas Anderson, and he his cameo is awesome. I highly recommend watching that.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02But there's those guys, there's the gay couple who add nothing to this movie other than a point of contention whenever Will Arnett's trying to go see Laura Dern in the attic, and they're eating the strawberry shortcake or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. They're just another example of characters that were just placed there without I think a whole lot of thought on how they push the main characters, yeah, or how they act as driving forces behind the main characters. And sometimes you can have side characters that don't really do a whole lot, and that's fine, but yeah, I don't think they're were really used much. Yeah. Besides maybe being a point of political correctness.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. I wish that I mean, it would have added a lot to their characters if they even had a conversation with the main characters. Yeah. But they didn't even interact, I don't believe, looking back on the movie. That's true. So we've talked about those guys. They're the two sons between Will Arnett and Laura Dern. Um, I thought that they were fine. I didn't have any notes for them. I thought it was kind of funny wherever they stole Will Arnett's joke book. Yeah. He got like really insecure about it. Yeah, I thought that was a pretty good scene. And I like that it they kind of added weight to this marriage falling apart. I think without kids, it would have been harder to root for Will Arnett and Laura Dern because they were so seemingly selfish and unhappy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it also gave an outlet for a little more lightness to the story. Yeah. It didn't make it all like super deep and all about their drama. It gave, you know, times where they could be joyful, but also, you know, specific things to be hopeful for.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. I enjoyed seeing Will Arnett's characters still be a good dad to them. Even walking through the divorce, he still had them over and they would all hang out. I enjoyed seeing that part.
SPEAKER_00Alright, Jackson, I want to ask you another question. As a whole, did Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett land the plane?
SPEAKER_03Hmm.
SPEAKER_02Good question. You know, I found the ending very bittersweet because I do believe that they will try to make it work. And I do think that Will Arnett did do the right thing by saying I was the selfish one as well, and not try to push it off all on her by going to her doorstep and admit the omission of that. But I f do feel as though they need they said something about being unhappy together in the marriage rather than being unhappy apart. And I feel as though that just won't sustain their relationship in the long run. I think they did discover throughout the movie things that made them happy, and they realized, oh, I need to be an individual outside this marriage, I need to be doing things I enjoy, I need to continue to pursue my community, I need to continue to do stuff that fills me up. And that's shown throughout the movie. But then Bradley Cooper has them tell each other they want to be unhappy together. And I felt like that's one of those things where I felt like that was shown throughout the movie, and he didn't necessarily have to tell the audience that because I feel as though we picked up on that, that the thing they were missing in their marriage was the them pursuing things they enjoy. Like, for example, her pursuing volleyball as a coach. That is what she was missing to make her happy and make her feel more filled. And him, he discovered a new hobby stand-up that he really loves, and that will help him be more engaged with life, therefore pouring into his marriage. And so I feel as though we didn't really need to hear that at the end. But I don't know where your thoughts were.
SPEAKER_00I'd agree overall. It seemed like they were trying to have this final scene, like a lot of either rom-coms or just romantic dramas have, where there's this line that they're going to land just to have it similar similarly to the notebook, like Ryan Gosling. But it seemed out of place the line, and it seemed, to your point, more just exposition rather than something that wasn't obvious. And they did a good job throughout the movie, so to give them to give them that, they did a good job throughout the movie, to your point, of actually showing what they said in the end. And really, it wasn't necessary for them to talk through that. And it seemed like it was they were trying to create this final line, like a lot of romantic dramas and romantic comedies have, but just didn't land well in my mind. And then I think in the end they also try to wrap it up, and I I think they did a decent job at wrapping it up at that um at the concert and kind of bringing it all to a close because they started with the boys having practice, having to practice their uh parts of under pressure in the beginning and closing it with that, and you know, they brought that as kind of a theme, I think, really that undertone, but in the end, I think it was a little unexplained.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have a bone to pick about that concert. Okay, so they're playing the concert, right? The camera is on the singer the whole time, not even their boys. It briefly shows their boys in 10-second intervals throughout the entire scene, and the scene lasts four to five minutes, and it shows the lead singer the entire time a close up of her. I did not understand that. Why why go through the build up of oh, my boys are gonna perform in this concert and not even show the boys? It didn't even show Will Arnett and Laura. A darn it briefly cut to them throughout the song, but it was just on this lady singing pretty much a cappella.
SPEAKER_00I think it would have landed better if she was a good singer. Yeah, it was a little awkward, especially like wasn't the greatest singer. And I mean they were kids, so that made sense, but it was it probably would have been better in a different context if they were like adult performers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. But but to my point, why not show the boys? They've been practicing this song the entire movie, and you're gonna show them for 10 seconds. I mean, like, what was the point of that? I I didn't get that part, and maybe I'm not supposed to get it. Maybe there's some deep thematic theme or thematic element that Bradley Cooper is saying through this child singing under pressure by Queen, but I didn't get it. Yeah, we may never know. We may never know.
SPEAKER_00All right, I never understand the the intermachinations of his mind.
SPEAKER_02I have some questions for you now. Um, did you think his stand-up was funny overall?
SPEAKER_00I don't think so overall, not compared to normal stand-up comedians. I think the one thing that felt just weird was that everything was about his divorce. And this really was a movie about explaining how he uses stand-up as a an outlet. Yeah, yeah. And maybe that maybe we're not meant to think it's that funny. I mean, it was pretty funny in a lot of ways, not because I think the the stand-up was in itself funny, but it was funny watching him talk about that and trying to make that into stand-up. But ultimately, it was like if I was at a show, I would kind of get tired of just hearing about this guy and his divorce and him going back and forth and then him having a meltdown in the end.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm thankful for the way it played out because we got that great performance from Will Arnett, which I've never seen from him before, and I'm impressed and I'm looking forward to the future things he does as a more serious actor. But Will Arnett is a comedian, and I felt like his humor outside maybe a couple scenes wasn't very funny to me. I mean, especially the guy, the um stand-up scene about the radiologist and the surfer. Yeah, that that wasn't funny to me at all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and they're just stupid. That was his like debut outside of doing open mic night.
SPEAKER_02I think he started overthinking, and then that was what he came up with. I feel like we could have had more better comedy, honestly, throughout the movie. I think that would have elevated the movie a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there wasn't really a Rocky moment where you felt like he was getting better, he wasn't progressing. You really didn't get excited at all throughout the movie by him getting better because he really, I mean, he somewhat gets better, but it's never really that funny.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and to your point, the movie's not about the stand-up, it's about him coping with his divorce. But for a movie advertising itself as a stand-up movie, I mean, it's called Is This Thing On? I felt like it could have done a better job of being a funnier movie, frankly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it seemed like it wanted to be more things than it needed to be, like multiple different genres at once, and it really couldn't decide whether it was drama or lighthearted romantic comedy or in the end, or just kind of raunchy comedy.
SPEAKER_02It really didn't know what it was, and I think balls was supposed to be the comedic relief in this movie, in lieu of the stand-up being funny. But I don't think balls was very funny, to be honest. He was just kind of a dummy, yeah. Other than outside the milk scene, the milk scene was beautiful that was orchestrated perfectly. They cracked me up. That was a 10 out of 10 scene. Um, but overall, what did you think of the movie? Would you rate it? Would you recommend it to a friend? What scale? Out of 10. Out of ten. 10 being best, one being worst.
SPEAKER_00I'd say probably a six or seven. Okay. Roughly. I I think it was entertaining. Yeah. I think there were parts that were just kind of sluggish to get through or just less less than entertaining. Yeah. And they were more more annoyances within the movie, whether it be just characters that don't make sense or or it being actions that don't make sense. But I think overall it was generally entertaining and it was well done. Yeah. From a cinematography standpoint, from a pacing standpoint, it made sense. Yeah. You know, regardless of the items we listed about what we don't like about it. Yeah. I still enjoyed watching it. I don't think it's probably for everyone. It's a little obnoxious in some ways. Yeah. So not for everyone, definitely, but um, if you can stand through that, yeah, definitely an interesting movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm kind of in a similar boat to you. I'd probably say seven out of ten. I did really enjoy it. I think it could have benefited a lot from tighter scripting, just better writing. I think it could have cut some fat, maybe added some scenes that would have created more value for the movie, made it make more sense timeline-wise. I felt like the pacing could have been tightened up. I will say I really love the opening wherever he kind of stumbles into the comedy night. I think it had a lot of momentum going into the movie. Yeah. I really appreciated that. So I think there's a lot of potential there, which does inherently make it a better movie because I do see what he was doing with it. And I think it's a compliment to be able to say, here's what you could have done to make it better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because I see the potential in what you were going for.
SPEAKER_00No, I agree. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But overall, for his third movie, I mean, he's getting better. Like, like you said, the camera work was great. He does a good job of characterizing people and making people feel lived in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd agree. And it and similarly to A Star is Born, these characters feel very besides some of the side characters who didn't seem natural. Yeah. A lot of the characters feel very real and not like authentic, but like they feel like how your inner dialogue would be like a normal human.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. For being so flushed out, I'd say Will Arnett was a very felt like a very real person that would exist. Awesome. Well that wraps up our coverage of Is This Thing On? Directed by Bradley Cooper. I hope that you guys enjoyed the show.
SPEAKER_00We'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_02Awesome.