Movie Review: Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work

Last year, Joan River’s competed in, and won, the second season of the reality television show, The Celebrity Apprentice. The show features contestants whose accomplishments often call into question the accuracy of the program’s title. Rivers, however, is undoubtedly famous. It’s probably not a stretch to say that she is a household name, but many who recognize her may not know why. Sure, we’ve seen her interviewing stars on awards show red carpets, and we’ve all made a joke or two about her plastic surgery, but rarely do we consider the groundbreaking comedic career that preceded.

For a new documentary, Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work, Ms. Rivers granted directors Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern unprecedented access, allowing them to chronicle the entire 76th year of her life. Through this access, along with archival footage and interviews, the directors are able to paint a surprising picture of the legendary figure. We are reminded of Rivers’ breakthrough, being discovered by Johnny Carson, and her rise to fame. We learn of her personal life, for better or worse. We see her succeed, and perhaps more than one would expect, we watch her fail.

Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work is appropriately funny, accessible and entertaining, but is also, above all else, moving. Among the film’s many moments of surprising poignancy, two in particular stand out to me as being noteworthily insightful.

The first involves Rivers, an aging female struggling to make a living in an industry built on superficiality, chronicling her daily battle against obscurity. The veteran comedienne holds up her day planner, stares straight into the camera and, without changing the tone of her voice or adding any superfluous drama to her words, explains that nothing scares her more than a blank page in that calendar. Joan spent her entire career breaking down barriers and paving the way for future female comedians. For that, she will always be remembered as a legend, but, for her, that isn’t good enough. She wants to work until the day she dies, breaking down even more barriers and paving new paths. She has plenty of time to be a legend after she’s gone.

The second moment that strikes me occurs while Joan is performing standup in a small town. During her set, a man shouts out that her joke about Helen Keller is unfunny and offends him; he has a deaf son. Without missing a beat, Rivers shuts the heckler down completely and instantly. It isn’t her ability to shut the man up that affects me, it is the manner in which she handles the situation. Rather than insulting him personally, Rivers uses the moment as an opportunity to explain that the joke is, in fact, funny, and that it’s important for him to think so. She tells the man, and, by default, the audience, that the only way she is able to get herself out of bed everyday is through her ability to laugh at the things in life that would otherwise reduce her to tears. By this point, the documentary has explored much of her history; it is clear that there are plenty of things in Joan Rivers’ life to cry about, yet she spends it laughing.