Bradley Cooper's stand-up comedy drama ‘Is This Thing On?' to close New York Film Festival

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

The closing night selection of this year's New York Film Festival will be the world premiere of 'Is This Thing On?' the latest film directed by Bradley Cooper. The film will be released by Searchlight Pictures but is currently without an opening date. Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the 63rd New York Film Festival runs Sept. 26 through Oct. 13.
Based on the life of British comedian John Bishop, from a screenplay written by Cooper, Will Arnett and Mark Chappell, the film stars Arnett and Laura Dern as a couple in the process of splitting up when Arnett's character immerses himself into New York City's stand-up comedy scene.
Likening the film to a contemporary iteration of the classic comedy of remarriage, NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim said it is 'definitely a pivot' from the grandeur of the two previous films directed by Cooper, 'A Star Is Born' and 'Maestro.' ('Maestro' also played at the NYFF.)
'I would say it's quite different from Cooper's two other films as director,' said Lim in an interview this week. 'It is less sweeping. This is a more intimate film — kind of scrappier.'
Lim noted the new film also has a very different aesthetic from Cooper's previous directing efforts. While Matthew Libatique — a three-time Oscar nominee, recognized for his work on both 'A Star Is Born' and 'Maestro' — is the film's cinematographer, Cooper often operated the camera himself.
'There's a lot of intimate handheld work, which I think matches the tone of the film — it has this bittersweet tone,' noted Lim.
Cooper, a 12-time Oscar nominee, also takes a supporting role in the film, with a cast that includes Andra Day, Sean Hayes, Ciarán Hinds and Amy Sedaris alongside stand-up comedians Chloe Radcliffe, Jordan Jensen and Reggie Conquest.
'Earlier this year we had the wonderful opportunity to shoot this story all throughout the city, so it's very exciting to debut it on the closing evening of the festival,' Cooper said in a statement. 'NYC injects an energy into every aspect of filmmaking that just can't be replicated.'
The festival's opening night film will be the North American premiere of Luca Guadagnino's 'After the Hunt,' a drama of campus politics and personal intrigue starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield. The festival's centerpiece will be the North American premiere of Jim Jarmusch's 'Father Mother Sister Brother,' a story of family relationships told in three chapters in three different countries featuring Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Vicky Krieps, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Waits.
Both of those films will have their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival.
Still to be announced are the NYFF's main slate and numerous other sections. Aside from 'Is This Thing On?' Lim says there will be a few other world premieres in the festival's program, which for the most part draws on titles from throughout the year that first screened at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Rotterdam, Cannes, Locarno, Telluride, Venice and Toronto.
'How do we make a case for cinema as an art form that is still vital and relevant? I think programming the New York Film Festival is answering this question,' said Lim. 'If I'm going to put forward a list of films that makes the case for cinema as an art form that matters today in 2025, which are the films that I'm going to put forward as evidence? The program is our answer to that question.'
The New York Film Festival main slate selection committee is chaired by Lim and includes film programmers Florence Almozini and Rachel Rosen, critic K. Austin Collins and former Times film critic Justin Chang.