Comedy as Therapy In Dark Times Is Relatable Point of ‘Is This Thing On?’

Comedy as Therapy In Dark Times Is Relatable Point of ‘Is This Thing On?’

By Lynn Venhaus

With its inspired casting, “Is This Thing On?” is strongest in its personal self-discovery journey as a married couple divorces.

Alex and Tess Novak (Will Arnett, Laura Dern) were married for 20 years and dote on their two boys, so co-parenting isn’t an issue, but navigating the single life is a bumpy path. Tess finds purpose again rejuvenating her athletic career while Alex stumbles onto comedy as therapy.

While how funny Alex is can be debated, the use of humor to get through life’s toughest times is a spot-on assessment. After all, Charlie Chaplin famously said: “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

Frustrated by life’s ups and downs, Alex seeks a sense of purpose while he is frustrated by life’s ups and downs.. In stand-up comedy routines, he finds out he’s relatable as a middle-aged guy navigating ‘uncoupling.’ It’s also therapeutic for this sad dad. An interesting by-product is he learns more about himself.

Tess, who clearly wanted to divorce, sought to renew that zest for life she had as an Olympic volleyball player and college coach. After years of sacrificing for her family, she is loving getting back in the game. 

As Alex’s newfound hobby takes flight , he keeps it hidden from Tess, his friends and family. But he also has a re-energized outlook on life, and finds this outlook rewarding in ways he never imagined.

As they face middle age and divorce, the Novaks are working on co-parenting and their identities as singles. Somehow, they come to an understanding that surprises both, as they learn new things about each other.

This film is inspired by the real-life story of British comedian John Bishop. Arnett met him on a canal boat in Amsterdam and, after hearing about how he got his start in stand-up comedy, Arnett wanted to make it into a film.

Arnett, a very funny Emmy-nominated actor who broke out as “Gob” Bluth on “Arrested Development,” has carved a niche in voice-over work, especially in animated series and films (“BoJack Horseman,” “The Lego Batman Movie”).His is best known as the guy enticing us to eat Reese’s peanut butter cups every Halloween. 

Showing a new side to his capabilities, he is appealing as the befuddled and vulnerable Alex, while Oscar winner Dern is a good scene partner. Their dynamic is believable, both eliciting empathy. 

The film is directed by Bradley Cooper, his third feature, and it’s quite a departure from “A Star Is Born” and “Maestro” – an intimate interpersonal drama-comedy that amplifies relationship struggles that many people face.

In a supporting role, he’s practically unrecognizable as Alex’s best friend, Balls – a scruffy, vain actor in a rocky marriage to Christine (Andra Day), who is friends with Tess. The friends’ scenes seem to pad the film unnecessarily, and Sean Hayes and his real-life husband Scott Icenogle are seen only briefly as pals.

Nevertheless, the family scenes are heartfelt and humorous without strained effort. Terrific character actors Christine Ebersole and Ciaran Hinds lend lived-in credibility to their roles as Alex’s parents, who are close to Tess and their two grandchildren (Blake Kane as Felix and Calvin Knegten as Jude, both naturals).

The appearance of Peyton Manning as Laird, an old friend of Tess’, is a surprise, and he handles playing a character quite well. 

The script, written by Cooper, Arnett and Mark Chappell, captures the fast-paced, competitive standup comedy scene, particularly at the iconic venue the Comedy Cellar. 

Stand-up comics Chloe Radcliffe, Jordan Jensen, Reggie Conquest, Amy Sedaris and Elizabeth Furiati are an authentic part of the cast.They know that making people laugh during dark times is an elixir. 

The grittiness of New York, how both worlds felt real, the sincerity of lessons learned, and an in-sync score add to the film’s enjoyment. However, “Is This Thing On?” never rose above OK, despite its good intentions and amusing, relatable moments. 

(“Is This Thing On?” is a comedy directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Bradley Cooper, Andra Day, Ciaran Hinds, Christine Ebersole, Peyton Manning, Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten, It is 2 hours and 1 minutes long and rated R for language throughout, sexual references and some drug use. It opened in local theatres Jan. 9. Lynn’s Grade: B-.)

Messy, Lazy ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Is a Colossal Waste of Time

Messy, Lazy ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Is a Colossal Waste of Time

By Lynn Venhaus
The sixth and final installment of the “Jurassic” series is ridiculous, weird, and messy.

 In a new era, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. Four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed and this fragile balance has reshaped people’s lives, there’s another threat. The original trio starring in the movie that started it all in 1993 joins the cast of “Jurassic World” for “Dominion.”

Far too long at 2 hours and 26 minutes, two plots struggle to make sense with little connection, chemistry, and concern. Boring and repetitive, not only does the story not grab hold, but loses steam quickly.

Bad ideas abound in this screenplay co-written by Emily Carmichael and director Colin Trevorrow, with story by Derek Connolly and Trevorrow. He also helmed the overstuffed and head-scratching “Jurassic World” in 2015. He did not return for the second instalment, “Fallen Kingdom,” for J.A. Bayona was at the helm in 2018. That story set up this sequel – involving governments capturing the dinosaurs, the evil black market and big bad Biosyn.

Oscillating in tone because of sprawling set pieces that take us to the Sierra Mountains in Nevada, the dusty farmland of west Texas, an exotic Malta location where it briefly resembles a James Bond spy thriller, and the Dolemite Mountains in Italy, the film sputters in giving us too many characters in what quickly becomes a convoluted and dense storyline trying to tie the two trilogies together.

Chris Pratt as Owen Grady

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, the manufactured couple who survived the previous two “Jurassic World” movies, are protecting the cloned granddaughter of “Jurassic Park” owner John Hammond – but evil dudes lurk in the shadows ready to pounce. They have formed a de facto family out in the wilderness — but Maisie (Isabella Sermon) is 14 and rebellious. You know what’s going to happen before you see the cartoonish Bond-like thugs appear.

Meanwhile, it is a welcome sight to reunite paleontologists Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill) with chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) 29 years after the sensational original “Jurassic Park.”

While all fine actors and apparent good sports, they can only do so much saddled with this everything and the kitchen sink plot – let’s add megalomaniac mastermind Lewis Dodgson, played by Campbell Scott, in the cookie-cutter mold of Steve Jobs, which is now a villain requirement of every blockbuster-comic book movie.

Dodgson’s nefarious Biosyn Genetics, which won the contract to shelter the dinosaurs at their compound in the Dolemite Mountains, is the source of impending doom because their genetically engineered locusts are creating a plague that will ruin the world’s eco-system. Enter his partner in crime, mad scientist Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong,) a character in several installments, who has a new twist to reveal.

So, it becomes a race against time as the three old-school science nerds gather evidence to take the corporate behemoth down all the while raptor handler Owen Grady and his lady love Claire Dearing, former manager of the Jurassic World theme park, try to rescue their daughter.

Oh, wait – there are dinosaurs in this movie! You might be curious about these hulking prehistoric genetically engineered beasts that now roam the earth again, but don’t exactly live in harmony with the humans.

The fact that they attempt to convince you this rather alarming occurrence is a good thing defies logic. Seriously, I already questioned the sanity of returning over and over to that island – I mean, it’s like the cast of “Lost” going back. Do you not remember what happened the last time? Of course they’re going to wreak havoc, and it’s even more ludicrous.

What started out as director Steven Spielberg’s dazzling, magnificent achievement of landmark computer-generated images, Oscar-winning visual effects and a genuinely frightening science-fiction disaster story from Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel “Jurassic Park” in 1993 has been reduced to repetitive gimmicks in the successive ones..

Trevorrow, in another example of lazy filmmaking, gives us more shots of sharp-toothed dinosaurs nipping at the heels of our escaping heroes over and over and over again.

Remember how good Owen was at training raptors? They go to that well again, adding more for multiple chase scenes and concocting a preposterous pet-like story thread home on the range.

Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing

However, one of the earlier set pieces is a high-octane thrill as “thoroughbred” atrociraptors are unleashed and in hot pursuit of Owen on a motor-scooter.

“Dominion” is not going to let us go without a big apex predator battle reminiscent of Godzilla vs. King Kong.

But this method of throwing every conceivable obstacle in the paths of the righteous gang turns dull and butt-numbing. Snow, ice, oceans, lakes, mountains, planes, trains, jeeps, helicopters, parachutes, science laboratories and amber mines – what could go wrong?

By nature of green screen acting, the cast is on the run most of the film, but the women do fare better than expected. At least Howard is no longer running in heels and Dern has sensible athletic shoes on throughout.

Supporting players DeWanda Wise as fearless pilot Kayla Watts and Mamoudou Athie as brilliant scientist Ramsay Cole, Dodgson’s right-hand man, are appealing additions.

“Jurassic World: Dominion” is unfortunately being released after worldwide panic during the coronavirus pandemic, and let’s just acknowledge it’s a strange juncture in history, With the rough navigation of the past two years, do I really want to be worried about dinosaurs in my backyard? No thank you to another source of nightmares.

How even more chaotic could the world be? Turns out a lot. Not sure I want to go there, for it isn’t the escape most summer tentpoles position themselves to be.

The legacy characters work, but the centerpiece second trilogy headliners struggle to find footing. Pratt and Howard have little chemistry, but genuinely convey parental concern for Maisie. Likeable Pratt seems to be there merely to stare but Howard has more heavy-lifting to do, wiggling out of jams that require great physical prowess.

Do not think too hard about the mind-boggling lapses in judgment here. Crichton was right to end his journey with “The Lost World.”

“Jurassic World: Dominion” is cinematic junk, a tired cash grab that will go down as the worst in the six-movie franchise. And please refrain from visiting that well again, for it has dried up like the DNA in the fossils.

“Jurassic World Dominion” is a 2022 action, adventure, science fiction, thriller directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language, it runs 2 hours, 26 minutes. In theaters June 10. Lynn’s Grade: D

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