In a year with legitimate soaring music in a film set in the music industry (the rap face-off plus the pop songstress finale in Highest 2 Lowest) and moving film-within-a-film (the virtuoso director character in Sentimental Value lensing truly moving footage), Director Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? (C) manages to make stand-up comedy look about as boring as could be. Will Arnett’s protagonist is down in the dumps as his marriage to Laura Dern’s character crumbles, and he takes on open mics as a form of therapy. The cinematography gives a “you are there” quality despite it not being clear why any of us are there. The best sequences in the film are opposite child actors (they’re great). The film is neither funny nor insightful enough to stand out as either root word of “dramedy.” Arnett and Dern embody authenticity as real people, but they’re forced into scenarios and situations that don’t feel incredibly thought out. No star is born here nor any act of a maestro is on display. This one feels a little like they’re making it up as they go along.