Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This behind the scenes, behind the makeup, behind the plastic surgery documentary catches Rivers hard at work, ridiculously hard at work. Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: The portrait that emerges is of a woman who is vain, anxious, profane, reckless, honest and frequently brilliant. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: This is a thoroughly exhilarating, thoroughly depressing portrait of the agony and ecstasy of celebrity. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Who would have guessed that Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work would turn out to be a stirring portrait of indomitability? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: By the end of Stern and Sundberg's portrait, you feel a great fondness for this tough cookie, who says she plans for her career to outlast George Burns' -- who was still working in his mid-90s. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: A Piece Of Work is funny, heartbreaking, and casually profound about the insatiable need for validation and approval that fuels so much stand-up comedy. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A compulsively watchable look at Rivers, show business and the price one pays to try to continue succeeding in it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is 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. How is this even possible? Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: This is a smart, sharp woman with a full life under her 20-year-old skin. Go ahead and make fun of her -- just try harder. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: 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 more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Stern and Sundberg made The Devil Came on Horseback (about the massacres in Darfur) and The Trials of Darryl Hunt (about a wrongful incarceration nightmare), and they have a fine eye for detail. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Welcome to the on-screen psychoanalysis of Joan Rivers, of which she seems equal parts willing participant and antagonist. Read more

Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News: It's one of the best movies ever made about the brutal and unforgiving world of show business, and what it takes to survive in it for decades. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Were James Brown still with us, he'd have to at least share his "hardest working man in showbiz" honors with Rivers. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The undeniably fascinating and entertaining documentary that looks at the audacious entertainer in the seventy-fifth year of her life. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Letting her demons run wild is what saves her, every day. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: She is by turns blue, bitter, hilarious, unbroken; a Hollywood-style portrait in infinite ambition. In that role, Rivers is unforgettable. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Rivers comes across as someone much more complex and vulnerable than her abrasive "Can we talk?" persona. There's a real woman under there, and she's pretty great. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "Oh grow up," Rivers used to snap. You wonder if she ever will. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work compellingly presents a strong woman with no shortage of anger, resentment and regrets -- but not an ounce of self-pity. Read more

Mike Hale, New York Times: Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: You don't get winsomeness, innocence and cuddle-me charm. Nobody will ever tap her to play Doris Day. But you do get one unique dame with a love she doesn't sell cheap, and a hidden heart bigger than her Botox budget. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is [a] testament to the enduring resilience and indefatigable wit of its subject. Age cannot wither her, nor Botox stale her infinite hilarity. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: She remains one of the funniest, dirtiest, most daring and transgressive of stand-up comics, and she hasn't missed a beat. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Joan Rivers is a comic force of nature, and this no-bull documentary offers a profanely hilarious peek into the 75th year of her life, on the road and off. Fasten your seat belts. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Stern and Sundberg definitely fulfill the Prime Directive of every celebrity documentary, which is making a famous person -- especially one the audience "knows" and has strong feelings about -- seem recognizably human. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's one of the best documentaries ever made about show business, about what it really consists of and what it demands. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, a hilarious and unsettling look at the rewards and costs of compulsive celebrity, shows Rivers in all her multifaceted glory. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Acting is about honesty, and there's something evasive about both this film and its subject. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The new documentary on Joan Rivers is so in your face, so fraught with harrowing, oversized personal stuff, you might want to get a theatre seat a couple of rows behind where you normally sit, to safely take it all in. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The strength of Stern and Sundberg's film is that they let her bomb sometimes. Rivers certainly can be wickedly funny, but not always, as anyone who has watched her over the years knows. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: 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 more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Co-directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg observe a year in the life of a woman who trailblazed for today's female comics and remains as driven, hard-working and career-focused as ever. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: For all the frenzied activity, Joan Rivers is less informative dish than infomercializing cliche. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: 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 more