Perfidia left Bob and Willa 16 years earlier, and DiCaprio’s character hasn’t fully recovered from the blow. “He’s not only getting older but also increasingly cranky and closed off,” Anderson said in a press release for the film. “It’s those mundane battles of daily life that are wearing on him. No one, not even Bob, can outrun what’s inevitable. Now he is trying to be a good father and watch his daughter, Willa, and the next generation come up. But they’re not doing it like he did.” DiCaprio said that Bob’s journey in the film, then, centers on reclaiming his sense of purpose in an evolving social landscape. “It’s about trying to be fearless in an age where we are riddled with fear and constantly silenced, but coming out of our shells…. He’s been somebody that’s been isolated, suspicious, and paranoid, and he’s pushed into a set of circumstances where he needs to be fearless.”
He’s not the only Man of a Certain Age grappling with modern masculinity and his place in a politically fraught climate. Also sporting a tiny, greasy bun and some oversized eyewear is Balls, Bradley Cooper’s character in Is This Thing On? (out December 19). Cooper and Will Arnett, who plays the film’s leading man, Alex, star as frazzled fathers navigating middle age with the help of cannabis. Both plaid-clad men have stoned epiphanies about their respective marriages (to Andra Day and Laura Dern) and professional lives—Cooper’s character is a struggling actor, while Arnett’s is a wannabe stand-up comedian. “This movie is not a midlife crisis—it’s a midlife catharsis,” Cooper, who directed the film, told Vanity Fair. “Sometimes you realize you’re coasting and you’ve lost your rudder and your North Star in life, and that takes a toll on whoever is in your orbit.”
Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett and Andra Day in Is This Thing On?Everett Collection.
