This will be a particularly subjective review of Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett because I’m a Smartless devotee. That is the podcast that features Arnett, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman. It’s my go to pod for snow shoveling. And also was my go to for flying before I was turned on to The Rest is History (The Abraham Lincoln two parter. So good. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.) If you have never listened to Smartless, start with the interview of José Andrés, the celebrity chef and humanitarian. It’s inspiring and enlightening.
The strange thing is that since I listen to Arnett often, I almost didn’t want to watch this movie. If I’m into a podcast and don’t know what the hosts look like, I enjoy my imaginary idea of how they look. Do you do that? And so I thought, well this may be weird to see this person on the screen with the voice of Will Arnett. But I’m here to report that no such phenomenon happened. I was able to watch and enjoy this film without thinking about the podcast. Will Arnett did a great job creating the character of Alex Novak, a guy who’s down on his luck and finds salvation in stand-up.
That said, there were times when the real Will Arnett poked through. The football (Liverpool) chant in the restroom, for example. This would be a non sequitur if you didn’t know Arnett’s fandom. Though later, he wears a Liverpool T-shirt as he emerges from his bed. In these cases, the nod to Liverpool took me out of the story. Not because I dated a girl who was a Liverpool fan, I did, but because there is no reason given, no indication why Alex Novak would be a fan. Also, where does Alex Novak work? He is in finance we are told. That’s convenient but does he work from home? These ideas are tied because there is no backstory, if you will, no history for Alex, or life for him outside his pain and drama. Does this guy have a job? Is he a real person? Is he simply self-inflicting wounds and self-centered? For the audience, it’s tough because his marital separation is just as murky. The whys threaten to creep in and overwhelm the story. And if they did, the film would die in its tracks. Because we the audience would feel that at any point, Alex Novak, the trust fund kid and Liverpool fan, could simply fly himself to Saint Martin, or Sint Maarten for that matter, when things start to fall apart.
But these filmmakers are too savvy for that. Perhaps starting and ending with Director, Actor and Co-Producer Bradley Cooper. He knows how to keep an audience interested in a story and empathetic to the main character. Even one who gets on stage at the comedy club, sets his drink down on a table in the front row and says, “Don’t roofie me. …No actually roofie me. I would love to be roofied.” Frankly, I thought the depth of darkness in that line was genuinely funny. It gives profound insight into the loneliness of the character. And yet, someone who is reaching out to others. And it’s a reason I enjoy stand-up. A sphere where everyone agrees ahead of time, we’re all grown ups here. We are gonna vent and laugh, be vulnerable together in a way that may be acceptable in few other places outside of this club.
Laura Dern also drops in a heartfelt performance, filled with nuance. She and Arnett have a strong chemistry together that’s sometimes even stronger when they are at odds.
As a fan of stand-up, I enjoyed Is This Thing On? It felt like a great balance between the art of telling a story and the art of learning a craft like making strangers laugh.
L&D Report 