Review: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

From its opening sequence, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work takes a candid, unvarnished approach to its well-known subject. The documentary, opening Friday at the Arbor, opens with an extreme close-up of makeup being applied to Joan Rivers' natural, blemished face. The image is striking -- we're used to seeing this celebrity's famously lifted and heavily made-up public visage, but the face before us is that of an elderly and ordinary-looking woman.

The film presents Rivers' life and career as the venerable comedienne turns 75 years old, a milestone she grudgingly accepts and doesn't quite celebrate. Age, of course, usually spells the end of a show business career, but Rivers' performance dance card remains mostly full. Her busy schedule is a testament to her comedic genius, but even more so to her self-marketing savvy and unstoppable work ethic.

Thanks to extensive clips from Rivers' hilariously vulgar standup routines, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is often a riot to watch, although viewers who know her only from broadcast television may be a bit shocked at her uncensored, anything-goes brand of humor. Before she found stardom on the Tonight Show and other comedy and variety shows in the mid-1960s, Rivers made a living by pushing the envelope in Greenwich Village clubs with edgy routines about drugs, sex, and other unmentionable truths. Although raunchy comedy is no longer novel, her feisty, bitchy and self-deprecating delivery makes the material fresh and often cringingly funny.

Tempering -- and also driving -- the comedy is Rivers' often difficult and sometimes tragic backstory, which the film deftly relates through vintage clips and photos, as well as interviews with Rivers' inner circle: her daughter, Melissa Rivers, her manager, Billy Sammeth and her agent, Larry Thompson. Rivers' personal and professional troubles give the film a serious and sometimes bitter undertone.

And her troubles have been many. Most famously, her longtime friendship with mentor Johnny Carson ended when she left her popular gig as guest host of the Tonight Show to host her own talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, on Fox. Feeling betrayed, the furious Carson never spoke to her again. But her stint on Fox was short-lived, as Fox soon fired Rivers and her husband Edgar Rosenberg from the show. Rosenberg committed suicide a few months later. Rivers and her daughter became deeply depressed, and Rivers contemplated suicide also.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work also explores how Rivers' insecurities, anger and sense of personal failure drive her comedy. Although a highly respected comedienne, she laments that she's never been taken seriously as a theatrical actress and writer, which she says are her true passions. At the start of her career, she did stand-up comedy merely to pay her bills while she pursued an acting career, which never really materialized.

In this respect, the film reaches beyond its immediate subject, becoming a bittersweet commentary about the nature of comedy and show business in general. Creative people often say they must create to be happy, and when asked why she's in show business, Rivers says she has no choice: It's who she is. ("Ask a nun why she's a nun," she says.) The film's major theme is that comedy stems from insecurity and a need for attention; as Melissa Rivers says, "All stand-ups are innately insecure...They're all very damaged, and they need that reassurance. It's all a cover." Another theme is the inherently cruel nature of show business, where failure is the norm. As Rivers says, "This is the one business in the world [that] is total rejection."

My only major criticism of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is that it's somewhat repetitive. Directors Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg illustrate Rivers' ever-present angst and workaholic nature a few too many times. Also, more interviews with her comedic friends and rivals might have given the film a more varied perspective on her personality and career. But as a laugh-a-minute vehicle for Rivers' standup routines and a portrait of a smart and keenly self-aware show business survivor, the film is spot on. It will satisfy Rivers' fans and comedy fans in general, while reminding them that comedy's underlying motivations can be anything but funny.