Equal parts sentimental and silly, Quiz Lady makes the most out of its fun premise and lead performers.
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I've never been a gameshow person. Not because I don't like trivia or the concept of game shows themselves. It's because I get wild amounts of second-hand embarrassment and nervousness for the players. If someone's good that's awesome and you can live vicariously through them as they breeze through the competition. But if someone is awful or loses out on big money due to a giant swing, I want to crawl into a hole and die. It's the same reason cringe-comedy doesn't work for me and I prefer game shows where the entire point is to be funny or something akin to bragging rights (shoutout to Dropout). This all brings me to Quiz Lady, a movie about a trivia nerd who is forced to try-out for her favorite gameshow by her over-the-top older sister.
The Setup
Awkwafina plays Anne Yum, a lonely office worker who finds solace in her humdrum existence by watching her favorite gameshow Can't Stop the Quiz with her elderly dog Mr. Linguini. A boring existence that gets exciting in a bad way when a local loan shark decides to hold Anne responsible for her mother's gambling debt and takes Mr. Linguini as collateral. Now Anne will have to team up with her chaotic older sister Jenny (Sandra Oh) to get overcome her nervousness, get on, and win her favorite game show.
This movie is a lovely surprise in a lot of ways. The buzz on this one has been good, so I wasn't surprised that it was good, more the reasons it's good. Starting with.
Great Casting
If I told you the plot of this movie and the lead actors, Awkwafina and Sandra Oh, you'd probably assume that Awkwafina would be playing the reckless sister and Oh would be playing the straight edge. Instead Awkwafina is playing our stick in the mud character and Oh is our livewire.
It's a great choice. It means that Oh can be upbeat, be an instigator character and I'm guessing for her, do a lot of things she hasn't been able to do for a bit. It's also neater when it comes to the family dynamics and ages since Oh is playing the older sister.
I'd also means that Awkwafina can be the reactive scene partner, which plays to her strengths as well. So as much as it might seem weird for her to be so buttoned up, it means that when she has things like intense drug trips or starts freaking out, it provides a different dynamic than Oh's laid back lack of shame. This back and forth works really well and means a lot of the movie's funniest/emotional scenes can land properly.
Get you actors who can do both.
Solid Emotional Throughline
The main reason this movie works as well as it does is because of the emotional undercurrents running through the film. The film has the dynamic of a road movie, since Anne and Jenny hit the road to try out for the show, which are bound to bring up each person's individual hang-ups and conflicts.
For Anne, she's very bitter at Jenny for leaving the house when Anne was still a kid, and views her sister as selfish and self-centered.
Whereas Jenny, may feel guilty about that and also doesn't want her sister to live such a closed off life where her only friend is a senior dog.
Whereas Jenny, may feel guilty about that and also doesn't want her sister to live such a closed off life where her only friend is a senior dog.
What I especially love is that there's plenty of evidence, even in the movie's opening, that Jenny was/is more of a parent to Anne than their actual parents when they were growing up and shielded her sister from the worst of it. But that's hard to see when all you really remember is them leaving.
There's some bridges to gap here and its satisfying to watch them work through these issues.
Jokes From All Angles
Another reason I love this movie is that it is a kitchen sink, silly-as-hell approach to jokes. Especially when it comes to little buttons and add-ons. As an example, there's a sequence where Anne is experiencing a rough drug trip, says something wild and that Jenny plays it off as a "famous Asian saying." Which quickly cuts to white lady nodding like "yes yes" and then another pan to an Asian guy who knows that's bullshit. So great.
You can also tell that this movie was written by a gameshow nerd in a great way. Jason Schwartzman's character, a longtime winner who quickly becomes Anne's rival, feels like a long-running Jeopardy! reference and there's great little bits like Anne being able to rattle off every Best Picture Winner in Oscars history...even though she's never seen any of said movies. It's the kind of jokes you can only get from a fan.
The Verdict: Sweet and Hilarious
Equal parts sentimental and silly, Quiz Lady makes the most out of its fun premise and lead performers. 8/10
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