A Real Piece of Work

Last summer, I was interested in seeing the documentary Joan Rivers: Piece of Work on the big screen but never went. There was two reasons for this, the movie wasn't in the theaters very long, none of my friends were interested in seeing it, and most documentaries really don't have to shown on a big screen. So, I kind of forgot about the movie. Then the titled appeared on Moviefone's Top 50 and I decided to check to see if it was on Netflix or available through Netflix Streaming. I'll show my age and say that I do remember Joan Rivers when she started doing stand up comedy on television shows like Ed Sullivan. I liked her comedy and her style so was naturally curious to how Joan was doing as she approached her 75th birthday. This documentary is a well done, insightful look into a female comic that really broke ground in the 1950s and 60s. She is extremely hard working and keeps herself quite busy. From the movie, I gather she works for two main reasons, money (bad investments) and insecurity. There is a depressing element to the documentary, aging in entertainment business is very rough. It was a disappointment to me that Joan can be very crude and vulgar on stage, to me she is just as funny when her language us toned down. If you are a Joan Rivers fan, please rent the movie, she is a interesting performer. This documentary helps break down the image that she is just the sum parts of her plastic surgery, she is a lot more.