After his biopic about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro, I was not expecting Bradley Cooper’s follow up to be loosely based on the life of Liverpudlian comedian, John Bishop. But, here we are! Will Arnett, who co wrote with Cooper and Mark Chappell stars as Alex Novak. He is a middle aged man, going through an amicable divorce from Tess (Laura Dern). When he goes to a bar, he signs up for an open mic night, to avoid paying a $15 cover, and finds he loves stand up.
This is a curious choice for Cooper after his previous much more prestigious directorial efforts. It is not a complete bust as both Arnett and Dern are pretty good, even if Dern feels too old to be the mother of 10 year old boys and her part is quite poorly written. I also enjoyed Alex’s time at the comedy clubs, particularly when he is hanging out with other comics.
But, the problems mostly lie with the relationship of Alex and Tess. I did not really feel that I understood their reason for splitting up, and the circumstances of their reconciliation were even more unbelievable. More crucial than that, I did not care about them. Also, whilst Cooper is amusing in a small role as the couple’s permanently stoned actor friend, Andra Day is awful as his wife. Cooper’s choice of filming using a lot of extreme close ups felt distracting and pointless.
I have not looked into how close to Bishop’s story the patchy screenplay is, but, aside from one chant briefly sung by Alex and his choice of t-shirt, there are no clues to its origins.
Rating: 5 out of 10