Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
IFC Films | Release Date: June 11, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
She's a teller of hilarious gutbucket truths as surely as Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor ever were. Yet while they were consumed by their demons, Rivers is just the opposite. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's one of the best documentaries ever made about show business, about what it really consists of and what it demands. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
A Piece of Work is the antithesis of Jerry Seinfeld's engaging but superficial 2002 documentary "Comedian": where the innately private Seinfeld holds nearly everything back, Rivers loudly broadcasts the kind of fears, anxieties, and ambitions most people would do anything to hide. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
This convulsively funny movie takes an up-close and sometimes queasy-personal approach to its motormouth subject, who, when she's not making you howl with laughter (or freeze up in horror), brandishes her deeply held hurts, fears, prejudices, poor judgment and bad taste as if they were stigmata. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
A documentary that exerts a car-wreck fascination as it follows the icon through her 75th year (she's now 77) while looking back over her tumult-filled life and career. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There's not a timid, sympathy-begging minute in it. Even better, you leave Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work with the exhilarating feeling that the lady is just hitting her stride. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Fascinating and has a lot of laughs in it. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
A gripping documentary. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
One of the smarter, more unexpectedly touching documentaries of the year, and I recommend it to you whether you love Rivers or loathe the very thought of her. Read full review
85
NPRBob Mondello
As the film demonstrates over the course of a full year with her, and not a great year by any stretch -- there is more to this particular hard-charging, egomaniacal, joke machine than gets revealed onstage. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianStan Hall
Rarely has a documentary subject projected such palpable fear and anxiety as Joan Rivers in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
A highly entertaining documentary revealing a serious talent behind the one-note present-day reputation. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis Harvey
Mixing hilarious standup footage with admiring if not exactly cuddlesome behind-the-scenes glimpses. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith Uhlich
It's easy to think of comics, especially time-tested ones like Rivers, as mechanical laugh-generators. Stern and Sundberg allow her to reveal the deep-rooted humanity of those ever-present quips, and the effect is humbling. Read full review
80
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
Rivers appears to have more energy than most 30-year-olds; she gets more done in a day that some of us could accomplish in a week. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What she thinks of herself, though, seems perfectly, if improbably, reasonable--a queen of comedy who won't and shouldn't abdicate. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
She is by turns blue, bitter, hilarious, unbroken; a Hollywood-style portrait in infinite ambition. In that role, Rivers is unforgettable. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineAmy Nicholson
For the small but enthusiastic documentary crowd and the comic's diehard fans, it's a must-see. Read full review
80
TimeMary Pols
Remarkably, thanks to this documentary, we hope for the sake of this smart, vibrant, apparently good-hearted woman, that the invitations keep coming. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Rivers comes across as a consummate professional but also a genuine person, ruthlessly honest about her life decisions and utterly devoid of self-pity. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
A compulsively watchable look at Rivers. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
An entirely sympathetic portrait of the artist at an advancing age. That's right, artist – and to a generation that knows Rivers only as a screeching red-carpet provocateur or as an overknifed monstrosity, that revelation alone is worth the cost of admission. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The film's biggest unexplored question: Why is someone with a reputation for laying bare the truth so addicted to plastic surgery? Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Succeeds because the subject knows she's a showbiz monster and plays her role to the hilt. She's Norma Desmond in "Sunset Blvd." or "Mommie Dearest's" Joan Crawford up from the grave. Read full review
75
ObserverRex Reed
It's all about personality and Joan's inimitable style, which fills every second of its 84 minutes. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Stern and Sundberg, best known for their Darfur documentary "The Devil Came on Horseback," did not shrink from the atrocities in Sudan; nor do they shrink from the fame-hungry excesses here. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
In the movie's best moments, Rivers is defiantly obnoxious and forthcoming about the fact that she'll do anything for money. At other times, the filmmakers attempt to make the wildcat warmer and fuzzier. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Although Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is unmistakably a fawning love letter to an amazing performer, its subject proves to be her sharpest, bluntest critic. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
By turns desperately funny and unfunnily desperate? Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
For all the frenzied activity, Joan Rivers is less informative dish than infomercializing cliché. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Maybe Joan Rivers is a high-powered engine of self-debasement who will go lower than anyone else for a laugh and a dollar, and maybe she's a skilled actress who has spent her whole life playing one. Either way, yes, she's quite something. And I'd rather appreciate her from a distance. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
The most provocative thing in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is the moment during the opening credits when we glimpse the comedy legend without makeup. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
If you're looking for an incisive portrait of self-generated stardom, you won't do better than this. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The insecurities that seem to feed Rivers's often angry humor -- and that have left her face looking like a mask frozen in horror -- are left unexamined. Read full review
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