Quiz Lady: Movie Review

Cast: Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, Jason Schwartzmann, Will Ferrell, Tony Hale
Director: Jessica Yu

Picking a lot of low fruit on its journey, but turning in an amiable film, Jessica Yu's Quiz Lady focuses on two very different sisters, Anne and Jenny.

Awkwafina's Anne is tightly wound, a shy and uncomfortable quiz-show obsessed shrew who is constantly overlooked and is happier in the background. By contrast, Oh is Jenny, the brash and obnoxious older sister who's resented by Anne for her behaviour. 

When they get a call to say their mother's nursing home has "lost her", the pair is thrown back together as they try to tackle her gambling debts and the kidnapping of Anne's beloved dog...

Quiz Lady does exactly what you'd expect from a road movie of mismatched personalities and very little more. That's not entirely a bad thing, given the chemistry between Oh and Awkwafina and Oh's penchant here for overplaying her part.

Peppered with a puncturing of Asian stereotypes, and endowed with a heart that looks at familial bonds, Quiz Lady's journey may be a bit patchy from time to time, but it's always filled with a degree of charm. Some diversions on the route - including Tony Hale's motel owner - don't quite work as well as they should, but at its core, the main relationship feels real and lived in.

Scenes showing how Jenny protects Anne in her early days as she sits on the couch entranced by the Can't Stop The Quiz show as their parents fight around them add depth to the bond through the years, but also show nicely how families drift and schisms appear.

Ferrell turns in an understated performance as the Alex Trebek like host of a Jeopardy-style quiz show and reveal his more dramatic edges, but Quiz Lady remains Oh and Awkwafina's movie. Their scrappy entanglements, squabbling and earnest relationship helps this film overcome some of its more predictable edges and resolutions.

Perhaps Quiz Lady could have done with a frisson more of the unpredictable but as a piece of watch at home fare, this Quiz provides some of the entertainment answers.

Quiz Lady is streaming on Disney+ under its Star banner from November 3.