A heartfelt comedy exploring grief and love, All That We Love follows Emma (Margaret Cho) through a mid-life crisis and reconnecting with her ex-husband, featuring a touching narrative on letting go and the bonds that shape us.
A touching and heartfelt comedy, All That We Love had made its world premiere as part of the spotlight narrative of the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Legendary comedian, Margaret Cho stars as Emma who is grieving the death of her adorable dog Tanner and her daughter is set to move to Australia with her boyfriend. As Emma suffers with a mid-life crisis her ex-husband, Andy (Kenneth Choi) makes an unexpected return hoping to rekindle their relationship. The film explores how Emma faces these challenges and has to learn she needs to let go. The film also stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alice Lee, Atsuko Okatsuka, Missi Pyle, and Devon Bostick. Film Fest Report got the exclusive chance to speak with Cho and Tan to speak about working on the emotionally beautiful film.
Kristin Ciliberto: What drew you both to this project and why did you want to tell it?
Margaret Cho: When I read the script, it opens with a scene and I just started crying. I cried throughout the entire script because I felt it so deeply. You know, the loss, but also the love like that. That is was what drew me not the grief, but it’s really like, the fact that she loved this dog so much and that is how I feel about my dogs or how I felt when I lost my first dog. Actually, that’s what I identified with and it was just so powerful and real to me. I just love the handwriting and it just works so well. So I loved it.
Yen Tan: Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s funny and just like Margaret I connected to it. Thinking about her first song you know, the script was written a decade ago. This happened after the death of my first experience of like owning pets and how much of a mark that they leave in our lives and the void that they also leave behind after they go, they pass away. I feel like that’s such a sort of universal experience that a lot of pet owners go through and for me personally, it’s very much like, when I lost my pet 10 years ago. I was always like trying to look for a film that sort of addressed what I was going through at that time, the pain of like losing an animal. I just remember at that time the best example I could find was Marley & Me (2008). I just felt like I wanted to see Marley & Me, after Marley died at the end of the film. From the beginning at that point, and that didn’t quite meet my needs in that way. I think that was like one of those songs sort of an epiphany at that point where it felt like, okay, I’ll just write a film like that about this experience.
KC: I love what you did with it because all three of us here have lost a pet in our lives. The film explores grief and touches on a little bit of depression and so many other subjects. Was it difficult to explore those subject matters? What was the most difficult scene?
MQ: I think all of the emotional truths were actually easy to film. It was slipping into the hardest things were just things that were funny like Jesse and I. Jesse Tyler Ferguson is so funny and we had such a great time. In the film, he’s like, just the best and we were laughing so hard because there’s a part of a scene where we’re singing in bed and we couldn’t get the lyrics right. We had to get them perfectly right to use the song because we had been licensed the song and so in order to get it perfectly right, we had to have it like inches from our face, right behind the cameras. So we were really laughing about that. That was hard just to get not the emotional truth, but the physical truth of getting the lyrics right in the song. We were just laughing about that so much. But for me it wasn’t all that it was hard. You know what it was, it was hard staying away from the dog actors because they were all so cute. One pet impediment kiss in Milan, but you have to stay focused so you can’t like smother them with attention. When they’re not in acting, they’re in their trailer or whatever space they provide for them. You can’t mess around with them. So it’s rare. That’s hard to keep your hands off a beautiful, cute dog. A little dog. So those are the two hard things.
KC: How many dogs are on set besides Tanner? Were there multiple versions of him?
MQ: We had one Tanner and one Sal. They’re both like mutts so we couldn’t get doubles or anything.
YT: Exactly, a very specific type of breed that was like, not replicable like pure breeds.
MQ: And such good actors like Wiley’s considered the Robert De Niro he’s just like so good. He’s just such a beautiful dog. So yeah, it was hard to not be paying attention to them all the time.
KC: What does it mean to both of you to have this film shown at Tribeca? It’s one of the biggest film festivals in the world. What does it mean to both of you?
MQ: I’m excited!
YT: I think ultimately, you know, what is Tribeca? Or whether we like the sound of, you know, the major festivals in general and it’s the first time the world gets to see the film. It’s very much like, for me, it’s always having gone through it before. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time because you don’t know how people are going to react to it. You wait for the reviews, audience reaction and all that kind of stuff. I think for me, it’s almost like, you know, again, this is such a personal film. I feel even more sort of like, in a way I don’t want to say I’m more fragile with this one. There’s an element of feeling like, it’s gonna be hard to not take it personally. When the harsh criticisms come in, they come in.
KC: I’m hoping for no harsh criticisms because the film resonated with me. It’s so down-to-earth and very relatable. What is next for you, I hope you both can work together again.
MQ: I would love that. I have a couple of other films at the festival. I have a documentary on the history of queer comedy, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution (2024) that is being put out by Netflix. Also being shown at the festival, A Family Guide to Hunting is a horror short and is very different. I’m doing a theatre festival for the rest of summer for a play I wrote. It’s kind of busy.
Explore our exclusive coverage of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival here.
