RIOTUS

A film about a stand-up comedian that isn’t about current events or the world around it. Whoduthunkit! Yeah, honestly, with so much dialogue about comedians and their place in our society, when first hearing about a film centered on one, you’d think it would be about all the mess that’s happened over the last few years. Some type of satire message about it all. It’s not, as Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell had different ideas. This film is about two people in a marriage and how they learn about themselves as they take time apart. It’s a real second coming of age story through a man who learns to deal with his faults by standing on stage trying to make people laugh.

The core of this film is around Will Arnett’s performance as Alex Novak, who’s going through the motions as he and his wife agree to separate, even as he doesn’t seem to want to but doesn’t voice that to her. From there, we get to see this man just lost in the sauce in how to live a life alone when he’s been together with his wife for so long. Missing his children. He finds an outlet by going on the open list at the comedy store in Manhattan. Cooper’s direction of having the camera follow Arnett through the world gives the film a feeling of being in a documentary while still being a narrative film. Arnett gives such an empathetic and revealing performance that we rarely get to see him give.

The way Cooper focuses on faces in this film, holding on to the actor’s face at key moments, lets you see these people processing whatever they are feeling at the moment they are experiencing it. The performers all have great chemistry when on screen together. Seeing Cooper as Alex’s best friend, Balls, who bumbles and falls all over the place, felt like seeing a sitcom character just happens to be in a movie. Honestly, at times, I feel the look of Arnet’s character in this is very similar to how many of Cooper’s characters look, and they look like brothers at times. Andra Day plays Balls’ exasperated wife Christine. At times, she’s like a personification of those articles of late, of why are women with men and how it’s embarrassing to have a husband or boyfriend, and with Balls as her husband, it makes sense.

Their relationship is seen mainly in contrast to Alex and Tess’ (Laura Dern) marriage, with the latter two hiding their separation at first from their friends. It has you asking, even in separation, these two seem good together, why are they apart, and Balls and Christine are still together? Yet the movie does handle all the characters well. Dern gives such an excellent performance in this film and is a full character. Tess’ goals and wants are believable while at the same time not completely clear to Alex, and at least when I was watching the film myself. With Tess still being a supporting character, there is some time given to her character outside of Alex. With her being a former Olympic Volleyball star, it changes the dynamic of our expectations and what we see her wants in life are.

The editing by Charlie Greene gives the film a good rhythm as the film moves through the different stages of the separation, as well as how it handles the stand-up scenes. I wish film scores left a big impression on me as much as on other people, especially in smaller films. So all I can say is that the music by James Newberry didn’t make much of an impression on my memory of the film. All in all, I greatly enjoyed the film a great deal. It has very strong performances with a fantastic turn for Will Arnett. Is This Thing On? is most certainly worth your time.