52 Films by Women Vol 8. 35. Quiz Lady (Director: Jessica Yu)

 

Pictured: Sisters reunited. Anne (Awkwafina) and Jenny Yum (Sandra Oh) in a scene from the 2023 comedy, 'Quiz Lady', written by Jen D'Angelo and directed by Jessica Yu. Still courtesy of 20th Century Studios / Hulu.

It can cost millions of dollars to promote a film. Sometimes studios prefer not to take the risk. 20^th Century Studios’ comedy Quiz Lady starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh, written by Jen D’Angelo and directed by Jessica Yu skipped cinemas and debuted on Hulu last November. It is a film that twice asks, ‘do you know you difficult it is to be Asian in America?’ and doesn’t dwell on the answer.

Ostensibly, it is a sports movie in which Awkwafina plays Anne, office worker by day, quiz show addict by early evening. A terry-cotton warrior, so to speak, Anne can fire out an answer on ‘Can’t Stop the Quiz’ as fast as the best competitor. She admires the host Terry McTeer (Will Ferrell) who has asked the questions on the weeknight show for 32 years through disasters natural (an earthquake) and unnatural (bees). Living next door to crotchety old lady Francine (Holland Taylor), who complains about packages being left on her porch (considering them trip hazards), her only companion is a pug, Mr Linguini. Anne gets the call she fears. ‘Your mother has gone.’ Only she hasn’t died, only left the nursing home whose rules she constantly flouted to flee to Macao. Anne discovers that she also left a gambling debt of $80,000 to a crazy Asian gangster, who in turn dognaps Mr Linguini.

Anne’s estranged sister, Jenny (Sandra Oh), who turns up at the nursing home in a revealing leather top and skirt – ‘it was the only black outfit I had’ – provides the perfect solution. Appear on the quiz show and beat current champion Ron Heacock (Jason Schwartzman with excessively whitened teeth). Painfully shy (‘I don’t like being looked at’) Anne refuses. Jenny posts footage online of her answering questions and Anne, who loves Mr Linguini, is forced to wrestle with her decision. The answer is still no.

Sandra Oh is the film’s comedy weapon. The actress, who has terrific range, goes the extra mile for general silliness. You can scarcely reconcile Oh’s performance from her role in the Killing Eve television series. In another iteration of the film, she could have been convincingly cast as the introverted main character. Anne, we discover, is an accidental dog person – not a pet owner by choice. Jenny left Anne a puppy and then worries about ‘her’ dog. Jenny is a woman who turns any endeavour into abject failure and, on the basis of talking to a waitress, decides to become a life coach. Jenny believes that you can get what you want by crying or else turning a request into a chant. With a crying chant could she make America vote Democrat this November?

I don’t want to spoil how Anne gets to Philadelphia for the regional auditions for ‘Can’t Stop the Quiz’, but it involves a newspaper and her neighbour. A motor accident is narrowly avoided, though when Jenny shouts ‘racist’ to a driver, the guy at the wheel reveals himself to be Chinese. Anne’s fear of being seen is acute, raising her arms to reveal monster sweat. Jenny decides to medicate her. Who knew pharmaceuticals could cause hallucinations? Sensing disaster, Jenny wants to dispense ‘diabetic medicine’, but the man competing against Anne is a doctor.

In the absence of a strong plot, there is a modest amount of comedy padding. Anne and Jenny stay in a Philadelphia hotel where the host (Tony Hale) dresses as Benjamin Franklin. He attempts to stay in character as the phone rings as if living in the late 18^th Century. ‘You deal with credit cards,’ Anne notes, ‘why is that?’ ‘I understand credit and I certainly know cards,’ chortles Ben. The gag imagines that the audience know about Benjamin Franklin down to a breakfast comment about Eggs Benedict – ‘Ben’ having to deal with a popular dish named after his rival. Like the fictitious quiz show, the film tries to teach the audience something. Maria Bamford, whose 2017 Netflix special was directed by Yu, appears as Marybeth Windlemore, the show’s worst contestant, who froze and became an internet meme.

There is some physical comedy about sharing a bed, something the sisters haven’t done since Anne was young – Jenny is ten years her senior. There is also a tragi-comic back story. Their father died on a yacht, imitating the ‘King of the World’ pose on the prow made famous in James Cameron’s Titanic. Was he both Kate and Leo? We never find out.

The film approaches gross out comedy in one scene in which Jenny requires medical treatment for her wrist after she is injured trying to get a Philadelphia sports bar to change channels during the game. (‘$100 if Quiz Lady gets any question wrong.’) A TV falls on her. Her floppy wrist, as if her hand were only connected to her arm by skin, is hard to watch. Oh and Awkwafina make the most of this.

The sister’ mother is blasé about the debt. ‘Come to Macao,’ she suggests. ‘But no handouts.’ Meanwhile the gangster sends Anne pictures of Mr Linguini, now renamed Porky and putting on weight.

Anne always switches off the final segment of the show where the contestant brings a partner for the purpose of guessing mimed words. It is no surprise that in the climax she has to face her fear.

Jenny has a redemptive arc, though when confronting gangsters her crying doesn’t work. ‘Your mother did that,’ she is told. There is a subplot involving a legal case against a restaurant; Jenny won compensation. Or maybe she didn’t win as she has been living out of her car and asks to stay with Anne.

A childhood anecdote about being too scared to go to the toilet in their cool cousins’ house helps bring the sisters together; the idea was suggested by Awkwafina during pre-production. During a telephone call with the show, Anne stands up to her colleagues who eat near her desk, so their work area doesn’t smell. There’s some nicely observed office behaviour here. ‘Say something clever,’ Anne is asked by a colleague after Jenny’s video of her goes viral.

Ferrell is restrained in his role as the beloved host, who wears a different bow tie for every show and mounts used ones on the wall. Each tie reminds him of contestants. It doesn’t matter whether they win or lose; they gave the show a shot. Actually, Terry adds, all the people he just mentioned lost, like the guy who played the mandolin during the commercial break. I wanted to see the tie he wore when the bees struck. Did it attract them?

Schwartzman gives a one note smarmy performance as Ron, going for his 84^th straight win; he does it well, even if dressing as the host is a bit much. Schwartzman and Ferrell cancel each other out, comedically speaking. Taylor and Oh have grace notes. There is a bizarre gag in which the cranky neighbour mistakes Paul Reubens (aka Peewee Herman) for Alan Cumming, which results in the former putting on a fake Scottish accent.

The wish fulfilment ending is nicely done, with loose ends tied up for the gangster, Jenny, Mr Linguini and Anne. Malibu is involved. Prior to it, there is an odd scene in which Burbank is described as just Burbank. Places aren’t exotic. It is the people who count.

What of the mother who ran up the $80,000 debt? That’s one loose end that the film ignores. I cut Quiz Lady some slack; there are bow ties in the credits.

Reviewed on the streaming service Disney Plus (‘Star’), Sunday 25 August 2024.