Quiz Lady is a buddy comedy starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as two estranged sisters who must come together to help deal with their mother’s gambling debts. Sounds simple enough, right? The twist in this is that Awkwafina’s Anne character loves this Jeopordy-inspired game show called Can’t Stop the Quiz hosted by Terry McTeer, played by Will Ferrell, which is like a joke in a joke – joke inception. Anne, who’s watched this show every day since she was four, leads her sister Jenny (Oh) to have an idea for Anne to try and get on the show and win enough money to pay their mom’s debt after Anne’s beloved dog – Mr. Linguini is petnapped. As you know, this will lead to many hijinks after the setup itself is wild crazy. What works about this movie is just how well Awkwafina and Oh work off each other, especially with Oh playing the free-spirited older sister against a super introverted and up-tight Anne. Awkwafina does well as this, moving around the world trying not to take up space and a meek woman who only feels comfortable in her home with her dog watching her favorite show. It’s very believable, yet also in Awkwafina’s acting comfort zone right now, going by a lot of her roles of late.
Now Sandra Oh is out here taking up space. I think for most people forget that she’s very, very good at comedy. I was introduced to her as an actress through the old HBO original series Arli$$, and she was hilarious in that. Her having this great spotlight on her from Killing Eve is awesome, but it’s awesome to see her play this type of role – a kinda basket case. She plays with a wholeness to it while Anne thinks she’s irresponsible; the film does well to show that her big sister Jenny is always taking care of her and looking out for her even when Anne doesn’t really treat her well. It’s this relationship that pushes the significant change in Anne throughout the film. There is another scene stealer in this movie, and it’s Holland Taylor as Francine, Anne’s next-door karen like neighbor. She’s constantly bugging Anne over stuff she can’t always control but gets some great jokes and receives a great payoff at the end of the movie that is a fun joke with a great cameo surprise. Let me not end this without talking about Jason Schwartzman as Ron Heacock, a person going for the longest run of wins on the Quiz show who is the most annoying man on Earth. Schwartzman is in his wheelhouse as this type of character he’s been playing since his debut in Rushmore. His character wants to take over the show from Ferrell’s Terry, and the two have a good back-and-forth on screen with their performances. Quiz Lady is a fun comedy and something that should entertain at home over the weekend or whenever you watch it on Disney+.
Score: B
