Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Herag Halli This is an amazing woman with an even amazing career. The film is well done with incredible candor and introspection that only a comedian would share. Nothing is off limits-the conference calls with her manager (Jimmy Sammeth who seems to have a love and hate relation with her) and personal assistant on the speaker phone in disparate attempt to land a gig to support her "Industry" and her opulent life style. I don't know of any comedienne ever lives or lived like her. The apartment is ritzy with gilt galore and classly decorated and she is the queen who has to do her raunchy routine to pay for the luxury. I have seen her live..she really does not have new or good material but people see her at least once, for the pure shock value. She is not afraid to show very unflattering scenes(even scary!) where she appears without makeup for a woman who thrives on vanity and plastic surgery. It becomes quite evident by the end of the film that she really does not have any close friends or family. Her daughter Melissa (not a very likable personality herself!) has no real love for her and her manager Jimmy Sammeth, who ends up quitting (it is ironic that the only tears she ever sheds in front of the camera is for him, and not for her husband who committed suicide in a philadelphia hotel.) Comedians become subtle and subdued as they get older but Joan, is the reverse. She is more daring and raunchy than ever. There were two other comedians, who maintained an extensive joke files like Joan..Bob hope and Milton Berle and they performed to their 90's. She says the actors fade out when they get to be fifty but comedians never fade..once a comedian always a comedian. The best scene in the movie is when she is sitting in the limo making faces to a voice over when she muses to a failed Play. The only thing I am not sure, is the therapy sessions with her daughter Melissa, was real or taken from a movie. I really enjoyed the movie. The two women producers have a great potential. They should do the same with Jerry Seinfeld!

jnguyen46117 I was surprised of the movie not being recognized by the Academy of Documentary. I guess they don't want anything to do with Joan Rivers, and that's the whole point of the documentary. The doc started out with Joan Rivers' lowpoint of her career (when she's already 70 years old), and it progresses with Rivers working her way up again. The film demonstrates how the once comedic icon and well known star turned into "a piece of work". With her comedic talents blending with her sad emotions, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is a snub that the Academy missed out on. OscarBuzz: NONE, that's the point! The Academy is missing out a a great film that shows the love for Joan Rivers and her career. She may be the one 70 year-old that still loves and wants to do her job.

ptb-8 There are two laughs in this documentary about funny-girl Joan Rivers. The Michelle Obama joke and I can't remember the other. Somewhere between self absorbed pity fuel-ling a license to insult and a need to please is this quite wonderful witty woman who can't spell vagina but makes jokes about them. At 75 an looking like Barbie's grandma, Rivers verbal avalanche of scattergun jokes makes you yearn for the days of Harpo Marx and maybe then Groucho if you need to hear a joke later. She is like the unofficial rat pack gal sidekick of the 50s and 60s who hasn't yet realized the rat pack days and the Las Vegas laminex table comedy they thought was luxury showbiz is all sooooo last Century. She lives well as displayed in a hilarious tacky Manhattan apartment that looks like an explosion on the set of the 1936 ROMEO AND JULIET set at MGM, she signs a dozen checks with which she buys an image of generosity, she does meals on wheels and in the film's one truly moving moment pays tribute to Florence Fox, an innovative NY photographer now almost destitute. Maybe Joan could also slip her a few checks. I'd like to have seen Joan meet Mimi Weddell the NY fashionista who died in 2009 aged 94 and still going to auditions. Rivers really is not funny. She knows too that yelling obscenities is as passé as Don Rickles doing stand up at 88. Somehow she is interesting no matter how hard she tries to prove how awful-funny she can be. A PIECE OF WORK is getting a good National release in Australia and the audience at a session I went to laughed occasionally. As we filed out most muttered how glad it wasn't one of her shows we are at since she really would have been in front of us. It was better she was just an image on a screen. I feel mean for writing some unpleasant reactions about her.. but it could be worse, I could make fun of her. Or is that what she prefers since it is what she does to everyone else including herself.....Basically it makes you yearn for Carol Channing or Lily Tomlin who really are funny and probably can spell vagina but do not need to.

John Gilpatrick (jlg310) The problem I usually have with documentaries is that, while I find them enlightening, I rarely connect to them on an emotional level. My intellect is stimulated, but I don't usually feel anything. The last documentary that made me feel anything was "Sicko." "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" succeeds in the same way. Here's a woman who is a bit of a joke and an easy Hollywood punching bag. But she shows herself to be quite a complex individual. She's of course funny and a workaholic. She's also quite vulnerable and doesn't take criticism well at all. At times, she's quite likable and very sympathetic. Other times, she seems twisted and self-absorbed. I suppose the real Rivers is a little of both. She's also a joy to spend 90 minutes in a theater with, should the opportunity present itself to you.The film opens with a shot that tells you everything you need to know about this film and its intentions. The shot is an extreme close-up of Rivers without any makeup on. For someone so presumably consumed with her looks, this is a surprising image that tells you this film is going to show you the real Rivers. Like her or not (and many won't), this is her.The rest of the film is loosely broken up into three sections. The first introduces us to the woman and follows Rivers as she develops an autobiographical play and performs it in the UK. The second follows her during her time on "The Celebrity Apprentice." And the final one shows her on the road across America doing comedy shows. Interspersed with these segments are sidebars about Rivers' past—her marriage, her time with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," her relationship with her daughter Melissa, and her annual Thanksgiving charity work.The two biggest things I took away from the film are that Rivers is obsessive (desperate?) about working and that she is incredibly insecure—perhaps the two complement each other. At one point, she is trying to book a commercial. She tells the ad agency's representative that she'll wear diapers, anything, to land a gig. After seeing this film, I believe she would. She's also incredibly self-doubting. When her play opens in London to good, not great, reviews, she immediately decides it won't see the light of day in New York. She says she wouldn't be able to bear the criticism. And when she agrees to do a Comedy Central roast—well, let's just say, it's not pretty.One of the most enlightening, and in some ways off-putting, scenes in the film is when she gets heckled at a show in rural Wisconsin. Rivers makes a joke about hating kids but thinking Helen Keller would be tolerable, and a man yells that he thinks she isn't funny, but mean-spirited. Rivers lays into him. She doesn't hold back at all, and while I hold the belief that comedians should be able to defend themselves as they see fit against hecklers, her expletive-laden tirade crossed a few lines. What was so telling about this scene, though, was just how insecure Rivers is. When one man, a nobody in her life, criticizes her, she viciously lashes out.I really did find this film fascinating for just how complicated it made its star seem. In addition to that, it's also quite funny. Rivers hasn't lost much in 75 years. I'd argue that her best bits are the more recent ones. Most documentaries are intellectual exercises, but not this one. It felt refreshing—not at all like sitting through a lecture. I wasn't a fan of Rivers before. I'm not sure I'm a fan of Rivers now. But a can definitely say I'm a fan of "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," and I would recommend it to just about anyone.