Quiz Lady (2023)
Quiz Lady is a light-hearted film starring Awkwafina as Anne Yum, a meek 33-year-old woman doing her best not to make waves in life. Anne is reunited with her aloof older sister Jenny (Sandra Oh) after their mother wandered away from her retirement home. The sisters are complete opposites; Anne’s sole joy comes from watching a nightly television game show with her dog, Linguini, which Jenny aspires to be an actor, appears to be living in her car, and is suing Chi-Chi’s after choking on a fishbone in her fish.
The sisters are forced to work together after a bookie informs them their mother has run up $80,000 in debt, and things escalate after the bookie’s cronies kidnap Linguini. Anne forms a plan to sell her car and pay the debt off over many years, but the impulsive Jenny comes up with a better plan — kidnap her trivia-loving sister and drive her to the QuiZ Show audition in hopes of getting her on the show and winning enough cash and prizes to pay off the bookie and rescuse Anne’s dog.
The film deals with identities, childhood trauma, and identity issues as the sisters hash out grievances from the past. For once, Awkwafina plays someone other than the typical loud, foul-mouthed characters she’s known for. It’s a comedy and a road trip film and a coming of age story.
Supporting cast includes Will Farrell essentially doing a subdued version of his Alex Trebek impersonation he perfected on Saturday Night Live, and Steve Carrell Jason Schwartzman as an obnoxious returning champion who apologizes to incoming contestants for arriving during his run.
Quiz Lady doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and offers plenty of jokes along the way.