Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Release date: June 11, 2010
Director: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg
Cast: Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Kathy Griffin

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is a candid documentary about a year in the life of Joan Rivers as she struggles to keep her schedule busy with a career in the entertainment industry that goes on and off as it pleases.

It’s surprising to see Rivers in such a vulnerable spot, talking about her beginnings being “discovered” by Johnny Carson, her marriage and the subsequent suicide of her husband, which affected her relationship with her daughter Melissa.

We see Joan being a workaholic, explaining why she does things and why she takes them. It’s amazing how such brash personality would  permit forming lasting relationships with her employees, some of them working for her for 15 years of their lives.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work shows her terror for New York and Los Angeles critics, as we see her avoiding them at all cost after the opening of her own play in Edinburgh and London. It’s really quite intriguing to see that after so many years in the business as a comedian, as a television personality — most people our generation know her from E!’s Red Carpet — she still thinks of herself as an actress, and hasn’t been able to move on from that.

The entertainment industry is a cut-throat one, but Joan shows that she’s a professional, she does whatever she needs to get done… and deep deep deep down inside the bitch we all know, Joan is a really good person.

Rating: