Is This Thing On?
Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 19, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TimesEd PottonOct 16, 2025
[A] warm and hilarious comedy drama. Read full review
90
SlashfilmEthan AndertonDec 18, 2025
It cannot be overstated how integral Arnett and Dern are to making this movie work. It's deceptively simple in its presentation, but it couldn't be a more complex tale of a crumbling marriage and two people struggling to keep their lives together for the sake of their kids. Read full review
90
The New YorkerJustin ChangDec 15, 2025
Is This Thing On? isn’t a dishy, insider’s view of the New York comedy scene, and it isn’t trying to be. It knows that its best material lies elsewhere. Read full review
90
ColliderNate RichardOct 14, 2025
Once Arnett's Alex takes the stage, it transforms into one of the most memorable and heartfelt films you'll see all year. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzDec 19, 2025
The alchemical collision of the actors, the style, and the real-life settings result in a film so attentive to fluctuations in the characters’ emotions that watching them exist is exciting. You never know what these people will feel next or how they’ll express it, and the camera’s always in the perfect place to catch it. Read full review
87
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 17, 2025
Arnett delivers something warm and genuine here, especially every time he’s paired against Dern, who perhaps knows this territory better. Read full review
83
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerDec 19, 2025
As personal as some of this material feels, it feels like a real collaboration of artists, all enabling Cooper to tell a heartfelt story with universal scope. Cooper’s not one of our finest filmmakers, but like Alex, he’s getting better with each effort. And whether you’re talking about relationships, comedy, or life itself, effort counts for a lot. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekDec 18, 2025
It’s, ironically enough, a terrific, serious performance by Will Arnett, arguably the best of his career. Read full review
80
iFrancesca SteeleFeb 10, 2026
Crucially, the film is very funny, but like Alex (and Bishop), in a gentle, unprepared sort of way that feels like having good mates over for dinner. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentJan 30, 2026
Essentially “Men will literally do stand-up rather than go to therapy”, in cinematic form. An appealing tragicomedy-drama, told with veracity and heart by Cooper, Arnett and Dern. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 29, 2026
Rather than a bruising marital wipeout drama, Is This Thing On? is a film about how new purpose and a new tribe can help you re-evaluate what was there all along (the title, of course, refers to the marriage as well as the mic). It might make you think about relationships differently; it probably won’t make you want to take up stand-up. Read full review
80
Little White LiesKatherine McLaughlinJan 26, 2026
The actors’ effervescent chemistry powers the film along wonderfully. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 19, 2025
It’s the kind of story that was made for the intimacy of the movie theater, and for the possibly lost tradition known as movie-date night. As ambitions go, that’s a pretty noble one. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 19, 2025
Alex is neither an excuse for Arnett to crack jokes at will nor part of a tradition of funny people bending themselves into Bikram Yoga positions to be taken seriously. It’s merely a portrait of a guy trying to find his way back, one confessional free-form monologue at a time, to who he is after being adrift in a sea of existential ennui. Read full review
80
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiOct 24, 2025
There’s a sincerity that underscores its central themes, and the performances, writing, and direction don’t cut corners to get to the end. And what we end up with is a comedy-drama that understands what a thoughtful exploration of a relationship can look like onscreen. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 23, 2025
It’s quite cheeky that Cooper should swipe the biggest laughs himself in what he intends as a love letter to the New York comedy scene. Equally, though, the fact that he can’t resist being part of this sparring, riffing ensemble is an endearing indication of how much he adores it. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 13, 2025
On the whole Is This Thing On? settles comfortably into a melancholy register, watching Alex and Tess negotiate their new normal, with or without punchlines. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreOct 10, 2025
We’ve seen Arnett play variations on his character before, sardonic and self-deprecating. It’s Dern who’s the revelation as a woman who truly doesn’t know what she wants, and who is figuring it out in real time in a way that’s a delight to watch. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 10, 2025
It’s an unassuming comic drama that sneaks up on you, its emotional honesty fueled by gorgeous performances of unimpeachable naturalness from Will Arnett and Laura Dern. Read full review
80
The GuardianAdrian HortonOct 10, 2025
Like a great routine, beneath the jokes lurks something tender, grounded and real. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryJan 2, 2026
In some ways, this dramedy, directed by Bradley Cooper, is a familiar story about midlife crises and marital dissatisfaction, but it quickly swerves in a fresh direction, resulting in a movie that’s both resonant and hilarious. Read full review
75
The Travers TakePeter TraversDec 19, 2025
Will Arnett and Laura Dern give their all to Bradley Cooper’s film about standup comedy as therapy for marital malfunction, but is it enough? Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 18, 2025
Alex is certainly worth spending a couple of hours with, even if the slow pace is better modulated for a night in than a night out. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckDec 16, 2025
A deeply felt film about one teetering marriage, and a work whose power sneaks up on you slowly. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 14, 2025
Is This Thing On? isn’t perfect. It stumbles where it should soar. But it’s alive with feeling, and that counts for something. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiOct 11, 2025
This is a finely observed and good-natured piece of work that carries some of the creative angst of Bradley Cooper’s other films but without the need to convince us of its main character’s genius. Read full review
75
ObserverSiddhant AdlakhaOct 10, 2025
Cooper’s latest is clearly the output of someone who has been through personal anguish, and like Alex Novak, he attempts to use his pain as the basis for not just something healing but something hilarious, albeit something deeply imperfect, too. Read full review
72
Paste MagazineCasey Epstein-GrossOct 16, 2025
Cooper isn’t reinventing comfort food, but he is cooking it well. You may not remember it in a few months, but it goes down easy and leaves you feeling surprisingly full—and in a world of stiff, larger-than-life, emotionally vacant Oscar-bait any day, sometimes that can be enough. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleDec 30, 2025
The actors sell it, especially when Dern is unafraid to mix revitalized pleasure with pushing for answers. But the stand-up storyline, so promising, is dropped and it feels like a missed opportunity. Still, the highs and lows of marriage aren’t merely a punch line in “Is This Thing On?” — and that’s good. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisDec 18, 2025
If “Is This Thing On?” is sometimes too careful for its own good, it is also deeply trusting of its leads, whose faces, under the scrutiny of Matthew Libatique’s merciless close-ups, reveal the hurt the couple is unable to verbalize. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 10, 2025
It’s an observant, bittersweet, and highly watchable movie, yet there’s an inner softness to it, a slightly pandering quality. Read full review
70
The Daily BeastNick SchagerOct 10, 2025
If [Cooper’s] third behind-the-camera venture rarely gets completely under the surface, it nonetheless hits a sufficient number of wise and witty notes. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 16, 2025
Is This Thing On? might come to its healing from an appropriately modest place, but there’s still a bit of actorly grandiosity under its skin. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJan 9, 2026
Other scenes work better, like a joyous birthday party, and a school concert, and there’s an affability layered throughout Is This Thing On? that makes it more of a hangout movie about a tepid midlife crisis than forward-moving drama. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 10, 2026
It’s small in scope and may prove relatively minor in Cooper’s filmography. But, still, the intentions of Is This Thing On? feel worthy. Here’s a filmmaker fully invested in what divides the personal from the creative, and willing to look at it from all angles. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 29, 2026
I’d like to see a film about a comedian who, like Bishop, really does flower into being funny. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 28, 2026
This remains a sincerely felt piece of entertainment that, unusually for current mainstream cinema, treats the audience and its characters like adults. Worth indulging. Read full review
60
Radio TimesJames MottramJan 26, 2026
It’s a good exercise for Cooper in creating something more low-key, even if it doesn’t quite come off. Still, in the days where adult-skewing dramas are becoming an endangered species in movie theatres, this should be applauded for attempting the subject of divorce with a level head. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 19, 2025
Just when this thing seems dead, though, the movie picks up considerably, and the much-better second half nearly redeems it. I give the credit to an experienced conjurer of the unexpected triumph: Peyton Manning. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureGiovanni LagoOct 10, 2025
It is a harmless outing that, while featuring a few strong performances, ultimately feels like a pleasant diversion from a filmmaker who is clearly capable of far more. Read full review
60
LooperReuben BaronOct 10, 2025
It's intelligent without being profound, amusing without being hilarious, empathetic without being gut-wrenching. "Cute" is the word I'd use to describe it overall. By nature it's nothing special, but it's not bad either. Read full review
58
IndieWireRyan LattanzioOct 10, 2025
Though often lethargic and listless, Is This Thing On? does stir up a vivid portrait of the New York City underground comedy milieu, even when New York City as a character feels more like the afterthought it isn’t supposed to be. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 4, 2026
Arnett’s funny. No doubt about it. But he needs material to work with, and “Is This Thing On?” doesn’t deliver it. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 2, 2026
Dern is excellent, as usual, and her scenes with Arnett feel realistic. The screenplay by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell is really thin, however, and I didn’t find any of these people compelling. Read full review
50
The RevealKeith PhippsDec 23, 2025
For long stretches, Is This Thing On? works better on a scene-by-scene basis than as a cohesive film. Arnett and Dern believably summon the off-kilter chemistry of a couple going through a rough patch in their scenes together and the lost-at-sea fogginess of the newly separated in their scenes apart. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 18, 2025
What might happen to Alex, once removed from the spotlight, remains a black hole. Read full review
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