The new movie “Is This Thing On” does an outstanding job of deeply analyzing the reality of love, separation, reconciliation, and divorce. This film is inspired by the real-life story of a British stand-up comedian, John Bishop, who stumbled into the world of stand-up comedy to distract himself from his depression over his recent divorce.

Is This Thing On, stars Will Arnett as Alex Novak, who is recently divorced and now living in a bad apartment, and still has to make mortgage payments on a house he no longer lives in. He has two sons with his wife Tess Novak, played by Laura Dern. Early in this story, Alex drives around New York City to escape the despair and loneliness of his apartment and stumbles into the famous comedy venue in Grenich Village, “The Comedy Cellar.” Fortunately, Alex did not have the 15-dollar cover fee, and instead took the option of “writing his name in the call sheet” so he could be called up to do stand-up in front of the brutal, rude crowd inside a late-night comedy venue. This reminded me that sometimes extreme despair and anger can sometimes be a catalyst for courage that you never knew you had. Alex, of course, did not have any comedy material and instead just started to talk about how bad his life is, his divorce, and all that went wrong to end his 20-year marriage. Over time and numerous appearances on the comedy stages in New York City, Alex improved and became a successful stand-up comedy headliner.

I was amazed at the extremely dangerous and crowded environment of the Comedy Cellar, where it seemed hard to breathe, and any emergency would make it almost impossible for everybody to get out of the building without being trampled. This movie also has several other comedians performing, and it has been a long time since I have seen any movie with this many recorded live stand-up comedy performances, since “Punchline (1988)” starring Sally Field, John Goodman, and Tom Hanks.

This story shows in flashbacks and interactions with friends what went wrong with the marriage of Tess and Alex Novak. Most of the problems are the common ones, including lack of communication and ongoing misunderstandings that over time become blown out of proportion and grow in importance, which are absurd. One telltale moment is that when Alex and Tess seem to be getting back together, Tess becomes extremely angry about a photograph Alex has in his apartment showing Tess playing Volleyball. Her reaction was, “This is not who I am now”. Her anger was extremely out of proportion over an innocuous photograph on a wall. Another glaring example of why this couple is divorced – making a huge mountain over nothing. This one argument caused Alex to go on an angry rant during his comedy act that had nothing to do with comedy and everything to do with his frustration and extreme anger over so many challenging years.

Bradley Cooper has a small role in this movie, playing a friend of Alex and Tess, and has the strange name of “Balls” for reasons that are never explained. Cooper also co-wrote and directed this film. Other actors in this movie are Christine Ebersole, who does an excellent job as Alex’s mother, and always seems to say the exact wrong thing. Ciarán Hinds plays Alex’s father in several well-played scenes. Sean Hayes plays Stephen, one of Alex and Tess’s friends. Amy Sedaris plays one of the comedians at the Comedy Cellar and former NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning plays one of Tess’s friends, who is also getting a divorce and bonds with Tess at a meeting at a restaurant near the Comedy Cellar that results in one of the better scenes in the Comedy Cellar after their date.

This well-written screenplay reminds everybody what we already know: problems and conflict are the expected output of any relationship or marriage. When you are married, you are no longer 100% in control of your own life; it is reduced to half, and when things go south, you are going along for the ride both emotionally and financially.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are a correct 85%. I agree with this rating and strongly recommend this film.