**½

All standups are innately insecure. Who would stand on a stage, by themselves, and say “Laugh. Laugh at me, laugh with me, I don’t care, just laugh.”

Wow Joan Rivers has issues. It should go without saying, but she is one of the most important comedians of the past 100 years ago. That she clearly wanted to be an actress and not a comedian ties into that unquenchable need for validation. Fortunately, as she puts it, “anger” fuels comedy.

And Joan Rivers, when she is performing, is really, really funny. The clips they show from her standup are phenomenal. But, aside from some archival footage for context, this is a documentary of one year in Joan Rivers’ life. It is hard to make an uplifting story about a troubled 70-something year old woman. And this documentary fails to do so. Moreover, it failed to make an enjoyable movie, which seems difficult when dealing with such a damaged and hilarious subject.