Quiz Lady is a coaster comedy. Not a roller coaster, unfortunately; I would like some highs and lows. Instead, this movie never really gets past “Awkwafina and Sandra Oh are sisters on a game show” pitch and coasts on that premise, hoping sparks would fly between them. You get a few flickers here and there, but mostly Quiz Lady is content to hang on the Hulu screen as you go about your activities at home, glancing when something interesting is happening.
Amidst the tumult of their youth, sisters Anne (Awkwafina) and Jenny (Sandra Oh) Yum chose wildly different life paths. Jenny lives the carpe diem existence, going for the modern American dream of online fame or any sort of “work less, get paid more” job. Anne became a shell of a person, living a dreary benign life with her dog Mr. Linguini and getting all the right answers on Can’t Stop the Quiz, her favorite game show growing up hosted by Terry McTeer (Will Ferrell). A runaway mom and shady vet shop force the sisters back together, in search of thousands of dollars to save their kidnapped Mr. Linguini. And, well, I think you can figure out where this is going.
Quiz Lady is coasting because it’s stuck in Mamma Mia land. Like Meryl Streep singing in Greece, Awkwafina and Sandra Oh are having a blast playing off each other, against type. Oh especially is dialed up immediately, giving us every version of manic hot mess you can think of, cute outfits in tow. The opposites set up is a comedic tale as old as time, and there’s an infectious energy the pair have when they’re sniping at each other in their road trip to the game show. But that energy vacillates to regularly between “funny for everyone” and “inside joke on set” of which I assume there were many. Bits go on too long, and the movie falls into a bit of a standard joke routine which dulls many of the edges the movie might have had, save 1 brilliant viral montage and a really weird trip to a strange hotel in Philadelphia.
The side characters help a little here at least. Holland Taylor is part of the movie’s best running gags and maybe the best joke in the movie, with a sweet sendoff for a beloved actor. Will Ferrell is doing Buddy the Elf as a game show host, and sneaky gets the most emotional moment in the movie amidst his gentle, innocent chiding of the guests. Jon Park (Dumfoundead) and Jason Schwartzman are having fun as cartoonish villains. But my favorite is probably Tony Hale, with a very specific, strange, but wonderfully ridiculous character that made me perk up the instant we get to where his character works.
I’m still happy we’re getting R Rated comedies in any form, and they came back with a force in 2023. Quiz Lady has lesser ambitions than the ludicrous Joy Ride, and probably is best scene in streaming form as it will be consumed today. The movie still leaves me a bit bummed we didn’t get something better. I wonder if this would’ve worked if Awkwafina and Sandra Oh switched roles? As much as Sandra means well, she’s better buttoned up and Awkwafina kills it motormouthing nonsense.