Laura Dern and Will Arnett returned to London with Bradley Cooper for a UK gala screening of Is This Thing On?, his comedy of a marriage ending and a stand-up career beginning.
Bradley Cooper hosted a UK gala screening of Is This Thing On?, the comedy he directed, at the Odeon Luxe West End on Monday 19 January 2026. Its stars, Laura Dern and Will Arnett, joined him.
Cooper wrote the film with Arnett and Mark Chappell, loosely from the life of the English comedian John Bishop, who has a story credit. It closed the New York Film Festival in October 2025.
Arnett plays Alex, who meets middle age and the end of his marriage by trying stand-up in New York. Dern plays Tess, his wife, weighing what she gave up for their family.
The film had played a Royal Festival Hall gala at the BFI London Film Festival three months earlier, and the January evening brought it back to London. Bishop, an executive producer, attended with Chappell and with Andra Day and Ciarán Hinds of the cast.
Dern was born in Los Angeles in 1967 to the actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. She made Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart with David Lynch and played Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park. Marriage Story won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.