Is This Thing On? | Film Review

 

Trying to deal with an impending divorce, Alex (Will Arnet) develops a new hobby as an amateur stand-up comedian.

It took me a little while to watch this one. The premise seemed somewhat interesting, and I'll always have time for anything Bradley Cooper directs, but I didn't really feel like it would be for me.

The movie is fine, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to.

One of the best things about the film is how authentic all the comedy scenes feel. The dialogue between the comedians feels really realistic, which in part may be because it seems like most of the comedians are actually comedians. These scenes are some of the best and what keeps the film interesting.

Alex isn't the most entertaining or endearing main character, and I'd actually say that about all of the main or supporting characters. I didn't care about any of them enough.

It was hard to work out what the audience is supposed to be feeling, which is mainly because I felt absolutely nothing almost the entire way through. Which isn't to say that this makes the film bad, I just didn't care about the characters enough to be interested in their relationship dramas, and that's really all there was outside of the comedy (and even within the comedy).

It does feel authentic, but so much so that it's almost boring. It feels like just watching people live rather than being entertained by the lives of characters.

It was longer than it needed to be - there wasn't enough in the story to justify two hours of an audience's time.

And after a while, the story felt repetitive. The characters were going back and forth, and it just wasn't interesting to watch.

So overall, I am glad I watched the film, there were funny moments and I really liked the comedians, but it probably isn't one I'll watch again.

5.5/10