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JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK (2010) (***)

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In a case of full disclosure, Joan Rivers makes my skin crawl. For me she represents everything that is awful and shallow about the entertainment business. In many ways, this documentary didn't change one bit of that opinion. But to its credit, it made me respect her more. And that's an accomplishment considering I had none for her before. That's because I only knew her for the parody her life has become.

Rivers was truly the first female stand-up comedian star. In the 1960s, she made a name for herself for women-themed humor that was cutting edge. She talked about things in public that many people didn't talk about in private. Johnny Carson took her under his wing and groomed her as his replacement on THE TONIGHT SHOW. But when she left the show for her own late-night talk program, Carson was furious that she was becoming his competition and virtual had her black balled. Once her show was cancelled, her career was devastated, which led to her husband Edgar Rosenberg (a producer on her show as well) to commit suicide. Can you blame the guy he was married to Joan Rivers?

Now if you think that last joke was offensive than you might not like Rivers blue comedy either. At one point in the film, when discussing Michelle Obama and Jackie Kennedy’s fashion sense, Rivers’ assistants have to convince Rivers that referring to Mrs. Obama as Blackie O is in bad taste. Nowadays she isn’t playing the big locations anymore and from the footage in the film her routine is either bitter rants on her floundering career or equally bitter sex jokes. It’s a stark difference to the wittier footage of her from earlier in her career.

She isn't afraid to bare it all. But someone who starred in a TV movie about herself and daughter dealing with her husband's suicide, I guess that should be expected. About that melodramatic TV special, she and her daughter Melissa both talk about how therapeutic it was for them. River addresses plastic surgery, the shopping network and her lavish lifestyle with great openness. Throughout the film, she appears without make-up. She's blunt about how it's hypocritical for the pretty people in Hollywood to say that looks don't matter.

As for her over-the-top glam lifestyle, she simply says that she likes the finer things in life. All the cheesy red carpet shows and jewelry hocking is done to pay for that lifestyle. But then there is her staff. She supports them all, helping to put their kids through college. She isn't just shilling for her next fur or bauble. Around holidays she delivers meals to shut-ins. On one visit, she meets Flo Fox, a boundary-pushing photographer, who made many appearances on TV, which now lives alone in a cramped apartment in NYC. Rivers is very moved by their encounter.

That chance meeting goes to the core of the film's theme and Rivers' motivation. Fox has been forgotten, which is Rivers' greatest fear. When female comedians, like Kathy Griffin, praise her for paving the way for them, she gets angry. She's still here she says defiantly. Every career move that she makes is a desperate act to stay relevant. When she does the reality show CELEBRITY APPRENTICE with her daughter, Melissa says her mother is certainly rooting for her, but she still views her as competition down deep. She takes comedy very seriously, having a huge file cabinet filled with index cards of the thousands and thousands of jokes she's written over the years. She only participates in a Comedy Central roast because of the paycheck. She would rather be able to tell them to take their "Is that the real Joan Rivers, or her wax figure" jokes and shove it. Surprisingly, she takes the cracks about her looks, comedy and career in stride, but has a really hard time taking criticism of her acting. Being an actress was all she ever dreamed of doing.

Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg is a very kind look at Rivers. They don't make her a joke; they just allow Rivers to present the joke herself. She's a performer who can't stop performing. Some will look at her as the consummate fighter and professional. Others will see her as an old timer sadly clawing to remain in the spotlight. The film never makes it one or the other.

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