Margaret Cho: Beautiful

Margaret Cho: Beautiful

NR 2009 · 86 min · ★ 5.0 · Comedy

Learning to love her luscious self over the past forty years, comedian Margaret Cho realized that the eye of the beholder doesn't hold all the power when it comes to beauty. Our tastes may be groomed by the media, but how we feel about how we look brings our self-image into focus. Armed with something more potent than lip gloss - a mouth so shocking and raunchy it should be stamped with a warning - Cho toured America with her manifesto: "This show is really about how we should feel beautiful," says Cho. "When you feel beautiful, you're going to have more of a willingness to use your voice to speak." Shot at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, Cho's latest stand-up concert film, Beautiful, explores the good, bad, and downright ugly in beauty, and the unattractive politicians and marketers who shape our world.

Directed by Lorene Machado · Written by Margaret Cho

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 30m together

Margaret Cho: Beautiful

Kathleen Madigan: Madigan Again

Both from Lorene Machado.

More from Lorene MachadoSee all →

Margaret Cho: I'm the One That I Want

Margaret Cho: I'm the One That I Want · 2000

Margaret Cho: I'm the One That I Want

November, 1999, Margaret Cho is home in San Francisco at the Warfield Theater. Cho structures her monologue loosely on her professional life's trajectory: doing stand-up, cast in an ABC-TV sitcom, losing 30 pounds in two weeks for the part, the show's cancellation, a descent into booze, pills, and self-loathing, and a resurrection into her own voice, her own shape, and being the one she wants.

Kathleen Madigan: Madigan Again

Kathleen Madigan: Madigan Again · 2013

Kathleen Madigan: Madigan Again

Kathleen Madigan drops in on Detroit to deliver material derived from time spent with her Irish Catholic Midwest family, eating random pills out of her mother's purse, touring Afghanistan, and her love of John Denver and the Lunesta butterfly.

Kathleen Madigan: Bothering Jesus

Kathleen Madigan: Bothering Jesus · 2016

Kathleen Madigan: Bothering Jesus

Kathleen Madigan's stand up special.

Late Night

Late Night · 2019

MovieComedyDrama

A legendary late-night talk show host's world is turned upside down when she hires her only female staff writer. Originally intended to smooth over diversity concerns, her decision has unexpectedly hilarious consequences as the two women separated by culture and generation are united by their love of a biting punchline.

Margaret Cho: CHO Revolution

Margaret Cho: CHO Revolution · 2004

Margaret Cho: CHO Revolution

Filmed live at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, REVOLUTION is comedian Margaret Cho's triumphant return to the screen with the same unbridled, no holds-barred humor that infused her previous two concert films. In REVOLUTION, Margaret tackles the axis of evil, her travels through Thailand's red light district, the explosion of child birth, bartering sex for household chores, revolutionizing one's self-esteem, the joy of bodily functions, her loser ex-boyfriend, and of course, her now world-famous mother. Known as much for her social activism as she is for her raunchy humor, Margaret is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon who once again brings her distinctive and empowering personal voice to her devoted and adoring fans.

Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O.

Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O. · 2002

Margaret Cho: Notorious C.H.O.

A film of Margaret Cho's one-woman stand-up show, in which she presents her take on modern sexual topics and minority issues. Filmed live.

Bam Bam and Celeste

Bam Bam and Celeste · 2005

Bam Bam and Celeste

Celeste and Bam Bam escape their Midwest hometown for New York, and take on their high-school nemeses - the dictators of the world-famous Salon Mirage - while discovering that true beauty lies within.

More Like This

Antonia's Line

Antonia's Line · 1995

MovieDramaComedy

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

The Front

The Front · 1976

MovieComedyDrama

A cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.

Nowhere

Nowhere · 1997

MovieComedyDrama

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

Trick

MovieComedyRomance

Gabriel is a young, aspiring musical composer whose life seems stuck in the First Act. When his new musical number gets a critical reception, a theatre colleague, Perry, tells Gabriel that he needs to get a life before he can write about one – so he heads straight for his local gay bar.

Russian Dolls

Russian Dolls · 2005

MovieComedyDrama

Five years after their summer together in Barcelona, Xavier, William, Wendy, Martine and Isabelle reunite.

Me and My Sister

Me and My Sister · 2004

Me and My Sister

MovieDramaComedy

Louise, who has just written a novel, comes to Paris to meet with a potential publisher. While in the city, she stays with her older sister, Martine, who in many ways is the exact opposite of Louise: she lives in a fashionable neighborhood, is cold to others, and has snobby friends, while Louise lives in a small town and is thoroughly unpretentious. Louise's apparent happiness -- and similarities to their mother -- gradually gets on Martine's nerves.

Tanguy

Tanguy is 28 years old and still living with his parents. They think it's time he moves out. He doesn't, so they hatch a plan.

2 Days in Paris

2 Days in Paris · 2007

2 Days in Paris

MovieComedyRomance

Marion and Jack try to rekindle their relationship with a visit to Paris, home of Marion's parents — and several of her ex-boyfriends.

Man on the Moon

Man on the Moon · 1999

Man on the Moon

MovieComedyDrama

The story of the life and career of eccentric avant-garde comedian, Andy Kaufman.

Rose Island

Rose Island · 2020

MovieComedyAdventure

In 1968, engineer Giorgio Rosa established the independent state called "The Isle of Roses" off the coast of Rimini, built on a platform outside the territorial waters, with Esperanto as the official language. The Italian authorities did not take it well because the micronation was seen as an expedient to not pay taxes on the revenues obtained thanks to the arrival of numerous tourists and curious people.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter