Touches You

Powerful

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Joan Rivers has never been shy and this is no exception. We see her warts and all. Normally, a documentary with a co-operating subject can be too one-sided. Joan is too happy to give both sides ... on most subjects.Joan is still doing the clubs and working hard. It's getting tougher and tougher. Kathy Griffin is taking the bigger gigs. Her biggest fear is an empty day planner. She's a workaholic with brass balls.For the inappropriate comedian, the most controversial part is probably her time with Johnny Carson. She has a specific take on the events. I just wish we get the other side. That's the only thing obviously missing. In general, we get a real insightful look into her life.

"A Piece of Work" begins with Joan Rivers looking like a refugee from "Night of the Living Dead" before tons of make-up transform her into something resembling a human being. This peek behind the pose may seem brave to some. To me, it confirmed that Rivers has turned herself into Leona Helmsley! A few more gos under the knife, she'll turn herself into Michael Jackson!"A Piece of Work" actually has a lot to say about the nature of celebrity. Rivers has money and fame, but what she really wants is status, which is why she attends a Kennedy Center tribute to George Carlin, although, as she points out, the tribute represents everything Carlin was against, namely rich Republicans (yuk, yuk). That Carlin made millions off of his feigned disdain for the establishment is lost on Rivers. That you have to earn respect in order to get respect is lost on her, too.Kathy Griffin prattles about how Rivers paved the way for her, but that's the extent of the props, which is telling yet not surprising. Like Helmsley, Rivers is an utterly unlikeable creature who makes Snooki look dignified. The tirade during one of her routines about her daughter nixing an offer to pose for Playboy made me want to wash my ears out with soap! Little wonder her manager bails on her every chance he gets, her staffers put up with her only because she pays them, and her daughter (a wanna-be A-lister herself) can't stand being in the same room with her for longer than five minutes. Only once, when she and her grandson (whom she seems to adore) visit an ailing photographer does Rivers seem to get that the world does not revolve around her. But maybe, that was just part of her act.

This had to be one of the most interesting "famous person" documentaries I have watched in quite some time, and it was also one of the saddest, of any movie really, I have watched in a long time. I have seen Joan Rivers live, back in the 80s, and her shows, just like the woman herself, are outrageous, honest, and to the point, hiding what is obviously a very insecure, unhappy woman. And this movie shows us just how insecure and unhappy Joan Rivers truly is. Was she always this way? In this movie she makes it a point, and numerous times, to state as much, as does her daughter, Melissa. Her work ethic is phenomenal, but you have to wonder if it was the work ethic that made her the way she is, or she wants to work so much to keep so busy she does not have time to think about how sad she is. Though maybe I have the psychology wrong here. Regardless, the movie held my interest the entire time, but like a lot of others, I would have liked more of her background and more detail of just how she got started, other than that she always thought of herself as an actress portraying a comedian. Well worth the time to watch this one, even if you do not like Rivers.

Joan Rivers has done a great deal of good for many female comedians. And what this doc shows is that more than anything, she has an iron will. At 75, she is still on the road and on the stage, and hopes to be for another twenty-five years. All very inspiring. But so what? The documentary itself doesn't go anywhere. We start admiring Rivers for her tenacity, and that's all we end up with. Worse, given her 30-40 year history on stage, there are only a few clips of the past. Most of the doc is Joan talking about herself and her will. We see some very sad clips of her terrified looking daughter, Melissa, and the movie barely touches down on the most interesting fact in the Rivers career--the fact that when her husband failed at producing her talk show, he killed himself. How can you make something like that seem like a footnote? This whole thing could have been a five-minute video set to Donna Summer's I Will Survive, and been a lot more fun. Because oddly, that was the one thing this doc totally missed--fun.