A lively documentary about female comedians, plastic surgery, and the demands on women in show business to fit a certain ideal of beauty, filmmaker Joan Kron’s Take My Nose… Please! addresses the subject of how women in entertainment have to reckon with artificial standards concerning their appearances, like it or not. Comedians and comic actors Emily Askin, Jackie Hoffman, Lisa Lampanelli, and Judy Gold discuss, with wit and honesty, the trap of feeling that a bit of a bump on one’s nose is too Semitic, or that one isn’t attractive enough unless you can stoke fantasies. While it’s easy to watch the on-camera interviews and want to shout "there’s nothing wrong with you, don’t change a thing," the film makes evident that women performers can feel equal internal pressure not to deny themselves something they want, regardless of their reasons. Toward that end, funny ladies of the past such as Fanny Brice, Phyllis Diller, and Joan Rivers—who all had facework despite having capitalized on their original faces—are recalled through archival materials. Take My Nose… Please! runs a little too long and becomes repetitive, but it is still often both entertaining and illuminating. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Take My Nose… Please!
(2017) 100 min. DVD: $59.95 ($299 w/PPR from edu.passionriver.com). Passion River (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 4
Take My Nose… Please!
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