I’m the One That I Want

Our Rating: L Factor: Minor lesbian content Short Take: Margaret Cho’s standup act. Alternate Titles:
Year: 2000 Duration: 96 min Language: USA/English MPAA: Not Rated	Director: Lionel Coleman Writer: Margaret Cho Starring: Margaret Cho

I’m the One That I Want Trailer

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Margaret Cho is a comedian who can be shockingly raunchy and abrasive in one segment and tell a very sensitive story in the next. Captured in this concert film, Margaret played her hometown of San Francisco in 1999.

Jokingly describing herself as heterophobic, she starts by announcing her fag hag status and moves on to her straight dating experiences, how much of a lesbian Jo from ‘Facts of Life’ was, and working on an Olivia Cruise, where she slept with one of the passengers. ‘I went through this whole thing. Am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized, I’m just slutty!’

At her funniest, Cho makes fun of her mother, imitating her Korean accent and her answering machine messages. It’s laugh out loud hilarious!

At her most touching, Cho discusses her sitcom ‘All American Girl,’ featuring the first Asian-American family on US television. The producers told her that she was overweight, leading her to end up in the hospital from weight loss efforts, and at first not Asian enough, and then too Asian. The experience led to a lot of personal pain and the fight for acceptance, until she finally realized, ‘I’m not going to die because I failed as someone else. I’m going to succeed as myself.’ Her discussions of everyday racism, homophobia and a cultural obsession with being thin really resonate and make her one of the most powerful and funny comedians today. This is my favorite of her concert films. (AB)