Movie · 2025 · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 2h 1m · R · English
Curator score: 4.8/10 (129.7K ratings)
Overview
As their marriage quietly unravels, Alex faces middle age and an impending divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess confronts the sacrifices she made for their family—forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.8/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.42/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Metacritic: 72
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Bradley Cooper
Production
Searchlight Pictures, Archery Pictures, Lea Pictures, TSG Entertainment
Cast
Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Amy Sedaris, Sean Hayes, Scott Icenogle, Blake Kane, Calvin Knegten, Peyton Manning, Chloe Radcliffe, Jordan Jensen, Jes Tom, Reggie Conquest, Gabe Fazio, Elizabeth Furiati, Michele Brilliant, Daddy
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A thoughtful, lightly comic divorce drama with real emotional warmth, but it sounds more like a well-observed midlife drift than a fully satisfying reinvention of the genre. The comedy-scene backdrop and the central performances give it appeal, though the tone appears uneven and the film seems to work best for viewers who like intimate, talky relationship stories.
Best for
adult relationship dramas
midlife crisis stories
New York-set character pieces
comedies about reinvention
viewers who like bittersweet tone
Skip if
you want a sharply plotted comedy
you dislike divorce-centered stories
you prefer high-energy or high-concept films
you want a romance with a clear happy ending
Overview
Is This Thing On? plays like a midlife reset button pressed in public. The premise has a familiar shape — a marriage breaking apart, a man trying to rebuild himself through stand-up, a woman reckoning with the compromises that kept the family intact — but the appeal is in the texture: the awkwardness, the self-mythologizing, the small humiliations of trying to become a new person while still sharing a life with your ex.
Worth noting
The comedy-world setting gives the film a looser, more observational energy, and the New York backdrop helps it feel lived-in rather than schematic. It sounds less interested in punchlines than in the emotional comedy of people who are still trying to be decent to each other after love has changed shape.
Bottom line
If it lands for you, it will probably be as a relationship movie about identity, parenthood, and the strange dignity of starting over. If you need sharper narrative propulsion or a more distinct comic voice, it may feel a little familiar. But for viewers receptive to wounded, humane adult drama, it should be an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (3★) · 5688 likes
Oh, sure, Laura Dern, why don't you go ahead and divorce the guy who's wearing a $5000 suit, COME ON
Karsten (3.5★) · 4243 likes
another coop film where he’s Working Through It. huge win for the bojack horseman community, bradley cooper is basically playing mr peanut butter. need more movies about how everyone should find a hobby
stavvybaby2 (3★) · 3020 likes
Movie was good but if a divorced open micer tried to talk to me and my friends at the comedy cellar for longer than 10 seconds we would beat him over the head with a spiked baseball bat
sivi (3★) · 2393 likes
so funny to say "i know a great place around the corner" and it's fully the comedy cellar
davidehrlich (3★) · 2383 likes
100% doing this when my marriage implodes.
shoutout to Bradley Cooper for casting himself as a character named "Balls." (and then somehow elevating Balls into the best part of the movie)