"JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK" - Excellent Documentary Portrait

[Carl M. Zapffe]

"JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK" (2010) ... A ... This documentary filmed over a year portrays the life of Joan River to celebrate, I guess, her 75th birthday. It is all the more remarkable for turning Rivers into a something of a sympathetic character even though she is not really a likable person. While very funny, she is a vulgar, foul-mouthed, and often mean-spirited comic who has made a career out of skewering people, sometimes at their most vulnerable moments. That the target of her barbs is often herself does little to soften her image. In this movie we see how one-sided and driven she is as a personality. 

The younger generation knows Joan Rivers from her gigs with her daughter, Melissa, on a Hollywood red carpet before an awards ceremony and from her appearances on a shopping network to hawk her wares. However, my generation knows Joan Rivers as a groundbreaking female comic who often appeared on the Johnny Carson Show and then was anointed as his heir apparent when she became his sole guest host. This famously blew up when Rivers unwisely accepted an offer from Fox to be their late night comic. Johnny Carson never talked to her again, and many believe that she lost out on many opportunities due to his influence. That episode is covered in this documentary, but you won't see much of her many appearances on the Carson show, and nothing at all is mentioned of her many televised digs at Elizabeth Taylor, who at the time was undergoing a weight problem.

Now 75 years of age, Joan Rivers has had a checkered career with many highs and lows, the worst of which came when her husband, Edgar, committed suicide after the failure of the Fox talk show. An accounting after his death showed that he had failed her as a money manager as well. More recently her longtime manager fails to show and is also written off. This is all about Joan, and everyone works to further the success of her career. She hopes to outlast her contemporaries like Don Rickles, now 88 years old. But it is never enough, as her greatest dream is to be taken seriously as an actress, something that she admits will never happen. To be at the pinnacle of her profession and still be unhappy drives her and probably many other comics.

What can be said about Joan Rivers is that she is a trouper and the show must go on. She does not understand or sympathize with rest or retirement. She defines her life by her work, and blank spots on her calendar are to be avoided at all costs as this means that she isn't working. Nevertheless, she has her standards, and she turns down a gig at a Las Vegas casino because the weekend is right before the popular Memorial Day weekend and she will never play the role of a fill in. Rivers lives well in a palatial New York apartment, and she is honest enough to admit that she enjoys the beautiful things that she has in her life. She has worked more than 45 years for them, and she is still going strong. 84 minutes and rated R for language and sexual humor.

Carl M. Zapffe,

The Cat's Meow Movie Critic

http://www.catsmeowmoviecritic.com