NYFF 2025: Is This Thing On? Q & A with Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day
Bradley Cooper, Andra Day, Laura Dern, Will Arnett, Christine Ebersole and Dennis Lim appear onstage during the "Is This Thing On" Q & A press conference at the 63rd annual New York Film Festival at Film at Lincoln Center on October 10, 2025 in New York City.
In a pair of galvanizing, deeply honest performances, Will Arnett & Laura Dern play Alex & Tess Novak, whose marriage has reached an impasse. With amicable sorrow, the couple—parents of two young boys—mutually agree to split up. Yet in Cooper's keenly observed comic drama, their separation leads to unpredictable midlife self-reckonings, most dramatically in Alex's wild career pivot to become a confessional stand-up comedian in NYC's West Village, where he finds new direction & camaraderie. This seemingly outlandish scenario—in a script by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell inspired by the true story of British comedian John Bishop—is never played for easy laughs, while Cooper uses his penchant for naturalism to give the actors space to find their complicated centers