With all the Hamnet and Wicked 2: High Noon at Morrible Mountain pheromones clogging up multiplexes in recent weeks (not to mention the sick fetish carnivals that are Zootopia 2 and Merrily We Roll Along), it was beginning to seem like the modern movie theater was not a terribly hospitable place for men. But don’t worry: this week, two movies by, about, and for the fellas are hitting cinemas. 

One such feature is Is Thing Thing On?, a movie so straight and masculine it’s about standup comedy. Well, it’s only sort of about standup. A lot of the movie, directed with laidback energy by Bradley Cooper, is more concerned with d-i-v-o-r-c-e and its fallout, as Will Arnett’s character maneuvers a new and lonelier existence without his wife, a former Olympic volleyball player (yes) played by Laura Dern. A dark fantasy about what would happen if Laura Dern were to exit your life? Sounds like a horror movie for gay guys. But I swear the film, co-written by Arnett and Mark Chappell, is pretty hetero in its construction. 

Which is actually something of a departure for ol’ American Sniper. Previous to this, Cooper made two films that are admirably interested in the softer side of things. His marvelous A Star Is Born is full of drag queens, pop girlie billboards, and Lady Gaga; it’s a big old-fashioned glittering romantic weepie that, sure, has Cooper (brilliantly) playing a butch, grizzled singer, but is decidedly for the tender-hearts among the filmgoing community. (Which is dying off like the honeybees.) 

And then, of course, there was Maestro, Cooper’s wild swing at high art that is often lovely to look at and listen to, but falters as any kind of biography of Leonard Bernstein. And yet credit to Cooper for using his movie-star clout to make a film about a guy who likes talking about classical music over cigarettes and hitting on Gideon Glick. I love that Cooper has been willing to so publicly reveal himself as a Man of the Arts, making two movies about the passion, heartbreak, and earnest beauty of creation. 

I suppose you could sort of look at Is This Thing On? in the same way—standup is, in fact, an art form (though, I wouldn’t mind if comedians stopped reminding us of that fact for a little bit). And the film does try to say something about creative expression’s cathartic value. But in most other ways, ITTO is disappointingly traditional and familiar, the kind of movie you’d expect a straight guy in his early 50s to make. Maybe that’s just because this is more Arnett and Chappell’s vision than Cooper’s. Perhaps the Coop was just doing an old buddy a favor by agreeing to direct this. 

It’s easier to parse the film under that rubric, rather than trying to square it with Cooper’s past two works. It’s kind of a lark, a rambling, cross-talking glimpse into the downtown open-mic scene and a somewhat boilerplate dissection of a marital separation among two upper-middle-class folks who have done pretty well for themselves. All of that is agreeable enough. 

A major problem—in addition to a general lack of conviction from behind the camera—is, unfortunately, Arnett, who has done wonderful things on screen in the past but here sadly proves that he’s not exactly this kind of leading man. It’s itchy to watch him; I kept waiting, perhaps wanting, for him to break into some caustic darkness, to turn things weird the way he might on Bojack Horseman or Arrested Development or 30 Rock. That moment never arrives—Arnett has endeavored to play, for once, just a regular guy. 

I never bought that his character works in finance—for one thing, his hair is too long to credibly read as hedge fund-y (or whatever). And I don’t think the movie really sells, or creates, any chemistry between Arnett and Dern. Arnett is fine in the movie, but he’s also kind of a weight around its ankle. Especially when there is Dern right there, lanky and crisp and limber as celery. Bradley, come on! Wouldn’t you rather make a movie from the perspective of the professional volleyballer whose ex bizarrely, ominously gets involved in comedy? 

But that is not what Is This Thing On? has set out to do. There is a surprising amount of Dern in the film at least, and Cooper is amusing as a dilettantish friend of the (former) couple. Glimmers of something more idiosyncratic and engaging dart through the picture. But then it is back to Arnett and his nearly jokeless standup and his humdrum moping. For the most part, the answer to the film’s question is, sadly, no.

For the younger, hipper male set there is Marty Supreme, opening in limited release before going wide on Christmas Day. It is directed by Josh Safdie, half of the brother duo who brought us the three Downton Abbey movies. Or, well, they are the siblings responsible for Heaven Knows What, Good Time, and Uncut Gems, all relentless and happily grimy films that yield mixed results. I love the flash and flurry of Uncut Gems, but was pretty much put off by the previous two. There is an air of smugness to the now signature Safidian verve that I think only Adam Sandler has yet to successfully cut through, or temper, or otherwise balance out. 

Which brings us to one of the year’s most burning movie questions: can Timothée Chalamet do the same?