Margaret Cho Movies
A self-described "Korean-American fag-hag, s**t-starter, girl comic, trash talker," Margaret Cho is nothing if not straightforward, and this forthright approach to her material made her one of the more compulsively entertaining -- and startling -- comedians to gain an audience in the 1990s.The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cho was born in San Francisco on December 5, 1968. Partially raised by her parents, who owned a bookstore, and partially raised by a motley crew of gay men and drag queens, Cho's upbringing in the city's Haight district made for a colorful childhood and adolescence. She began doing standup at 16, performing in a comedy club above her parents' store. A short time later, she won a comedy contest, first prize being the chance to open for Jerry Seinfeld. After moving to Los Angeles in the early '90s, Cho found her audience growing, and, after appearing on shows hosted by Arsenio Hall and Bob Hope and winning the 1994 American Comedy Award for Female Comedian, she was approached to be the star of her own sitcom, CBS' All-American Girl. Billed by the network as a ground-breaking show thanks to its status as the first network series about Asian-Americans, All-American Girl proved to be controversial, attacked by some for not being Asian enough even as others criticized it for being too Asian.
For her part, Cho found herself in the center of the controversy, and the pressures surrounding her -- many of which were manifested in the network's orders to her to lose weight -- lent themselves to the comedian's addiction to diet pills and alcohol, a struggle she would later detail in her one-woman show I'm the One That I Want. Following the short-lived sitcom's cancellation, Cho continued to deal with drug and alcohol problems. She eventually kicked her addictions and became visible again, appearing in supporting roles in films ranging from The Doom Generation (1995) to John Woo's Face/Off (1997) and performing sold-out shows across the country.
In the late '90s, Cho used her experiences with All-American Girl as the basis for her off-Broadway show I'm the One That I Want. The show became a huge success among critics and audiences alike, and subsequently toured the U.S. for over two years. In 2000 it was adapted for the screen; that same year Cho kept busy with a number of other projects, including Spent, an independent drama about addiction and dysfunction among a group of twenty-somethings. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1997
A theme of racial harmony underlies this comedy-drama. The couple Joe (Ernie Hudson) and Annabelle Lee (Pam Grier) learn the baby they are adopting is not black but Chinese. As Julian Lee (Dante Basco), reaches teen-hood, his father dies and the adopted boy moves with his mom to Atlanta. Here he hopes to make friends with the local teens, who are somewhat perplexed by the Asian-American's hip-hop slang and high scores when he grabs the basketball. Julian intervenes when his younger brother Perry (Rashaan Nall) falls in with local gangsta Frog (Tone Loc) and his group. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot, similar problems surface for clueless foreign-exchange student May-Ling (Margaret Cho). She's baffled to find herself living with a black family, a situation leading to inventive cross-cultural comedy. The film's soundtrack combines hip-hop, funk, and Asian instrumentals. Shown at the 1997 Hamptons Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernie Hudson, Pam Grier, (more)
In this bittersweet comedy drama, a man nearing the end of his life seeks closure with his family and friends, and he confronts the issues of the right to die. Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) is a successful architect who is openly gay. He was involved in a committed relationship with Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison), a television director, until Nick discovered that he's HIV-positive. Nick's first question to Brandon is "You won't leave me, will you? I don't want to die alone." Brandon, however, doesn't have the emotional strength to deal with Nick's condition and soon moves on. Several years later, even though Nick has been mindful of his health, he begins to display symptoms of full-blown AIDS, most notably the brain lesions that indicate Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, an AIDS-related illness that has already claimed several of his friends. Wanting to go out with his dignity intact, Nick decides to throw one last party, which will give him the opportunity to say goodbye to his friends and family while he's still lucid -- shortly after which he intends to take his own life with painkillers. Nick attempts to make peace with his mother and father (Lee Grant and George Segal), who had difficulty accepting their son's lifestyle, and he enjoys a last laugh with his close friends, until Brandon -- who is hardly welcomed by the group -- shows up. Appearing as Nick's friends and family are Margaret Cho, Bronson Pinchot, Bruce Davison, Sally Kellerman, Marlee Matlin, Roddy McDowall, and Dennis Christopher. Writer and director Randal Kleiser loosely based It's My Party on his own personal experiences when his longtime companion was diagnosed with AIDS and opted to take his own life before his symptoms became too severe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, (more)
Billed as "a heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki," The Doom Generation is the director's self-styled bad-taste teen film. Amy Blue (Rose McGowan) is an obnoxious teenage speed freak and her boyfriend Jordan White (James Duval) is a passive, slow-witted poseur who won't have sex with her because he's terrified of AIDS (even though they both claim to be virgins). One day, they run across Xavier Red (Johnathon Schaech), a charming but enigmatic drifter who has a bad habit of killing people. Joining the young couple on a seemingly endless road trip, Xavier (or "X,"as the verbally challenged Jordan insists on calling him), proves a threatening and repulsive yet strangely alluring companion whose very presence raises issues of loyalty and sexual identity. The Doom Generation is dotted with a variety of eccentric cameo appearances, including comic Margaret Cho, actress Parker Posey, musician Perry Farrell, "Hollywood Madame" Heidi Fleiss, and onetime Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight. This is the middle installment in Araki's "teen apocalypse trilogy," which also includes 1993's Totally F***ed Up and 1997's Nowhere. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Duval, Rose McGowan, (more)
Angie is the study of a believable Italian-American woman who takes an honest look at herself and sees she's on a predictable path that will soon include an altar and a baby carriage. "There's gotta' be more!" she feels, and she's one gal with courage enough to find the answer. Geena Davis stars in this worthwhile effort. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geena Davis, Stephen Rea, (more)
Harrison Ford delivers one of his most-acclaimed performances in Peter Weir's adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel (scripted by Paul Schrader). Ford plays Allie Fox, an inventor embittered by the blighted landscape of the contemporary United States. As he tells his oldest son, Charlie (River Phoenix), "Look around you. It's a toilet." He moves his wife (Helen Mirren) and kids -- Charlie, Jerry (Jadrien Steele), April (Hilary Gordon), and Clover (Rebecca Gordon) -- to the rain forests of Central America, where he plans to create a new civilization starting with his own nuclear family. Allie's family compliantly goes along with his scheme to build a free society, but slowly notices that his obsession has turned him into a tyrannical fascist. Rather than create a utopia, Allie's driving egomania demands total subservience from his downtrodden brood. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, (more)
