Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the buzziest scripts of the movie awards season continues with Is This Thing On? , Searchlight’s comedy-drama set in the world of New York stand-up. Bradley Cooper directed the pic, which he wrote based on the original screenplay by the film’s star Will Arnett and Mark Chappell.

The film world premiered in October fittingly at the New York Film Festival (the movie takes place in NYC), it his select theaters December 19 (so tread lightly ahead with spoilers).

Arnett plays Alex, faced with middle again and the unraveling of his marriage to Tess (Laura Dern), and ex-athlete who is going through similar existential crises. The pair navigate co-parenting and all the rest while wondering whether love can take a new form. For Alex, that

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