The Truth About Plastic Surgery: Joan Kron’s Documentary Take My Nose…Please!

Originally published at The Hollywood Times: https://www.thehollywoodtimes.today/the-truth-about-plastic-surgery/

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“I did not like the way that plastic surgery was portrayed in reality TV shows and in films. It was always bizarre and over the top. It was either horror or people asking for too much… Most patients want to look natural, they want to look like themselves. That was never portrayed because it’s boring! By going through comedians, it was not boring.” Joan Kron’s new documentary Take My Nose…Please! follows two comedians, Emily Askin and Jackie Hoffman, as they deliberate about having face-changing procedures. As many women do, Askin and Hoffman both had things they wanted to change about their appearances and turned to plastic surgery; Askin wanted a nose job and Hoffman wanted a nose job and a face lift. We follow both comedians’ journeys and see all aspects of having these procedures done; Putting it all in perspective are psychologists, sociologists, the medical community and cultural critics.

Comedy has played a big role in exposing the pressure on women to be attractive. We saw many comedians such as Fanny Brice, Joan Rivers, Totie Fields, Phyllis Diller, Lisa Lampaneli, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Kathy Griffin and more discuss and have a laugh at plastic surgery; some eventually going under the knife themselves. This film’s focus was on comedians; “If it weren’t for comedians, plastic surgery would have never gotten off the ground. Women see changes in celebrities and they wanna know ‘how did they change?’, ‘who did that?’, ‘what did they do?’ and nobody can tell them because there is so much secrecy and when people do confess, as I know very well, they confess half” (Kron). Telling this story through comedians made it entertaining while being incredibly informative.

 Women have this pressure from society that to be beautiful, we must have a small physique, erase our wrinkles, have plump lips and have perfect, small noses. If you aren’t society’s idea of beauty, you either have to change your “flaws” or accept the fact that you are going to be at a disadvantage in the personal world and workforce. This has caused women all over the world to have insecurities about the smallest of things on their bodies and faces. On the other hand, some women have had these insecurities their whole life and believe that they hold power in being able to change their appearance. This film shines a light on society’s conflicted relationship with plastic surgery. It discussed the dangers and benefits as well as showing you can go as natural or as extreme as you please with cosmetic procedures. After watching this film, Dr. Steven Teitelbaum commended Joan by saying “This film is absolutely encyclopedic about plastic surgery. Anything we can talk about is a mere footnote to this… This is just the most phenomenal picture. I can’t believe in 99 minutes that you covered every aspect that people have talked about, written books about, and they haven’t even gotten anywhere near as close to the truth as you did.”

 Take My Nose…Please! is the debut feature film from longtime former Allure Magazine editor now turned filmmaker, Joan Kron. For Joan, at the amazing age of 89 years-old, documentary film making is now her new career! The film opens in theaters in New York on October 6 at the Village East Cinemas, and in Los Angeles on October 13 at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, and national roll out to follow.