‘Quiz Lady’ (2023) Review – Sandra Oh Shines In Mediocre Comedy

Every night without fail, Anne (Awkwafina) sits on the couch and watches Can’t Stop The Quiz, a Jeopardy-style game show hosted by Terry McTeer (Will Ferrell). Anne guesses just about every question right with an astute knowledge of the most random facts possible. Watching with her dog, Linguini, and guessing the answers correctly has been a tradition ever since she was four, an escape from her parents’ arguments and the dysfunction of everyday life.

In the new Hulu film Quiz Lady, it may very well be the answer to her current-day problems. That’s because she’s a “28-year-old woman living the life of a 98-year-old widower,” as her more outgoing and eccentric older sister, Jenny (Sandra Oh), puts it when she barges into her mundane life. The two opposing sisters must come together to raise money by getting Anne on the show after their mother is kicked out of her retirement home and Linguini is kidnapped.

The foundation of this solid comedy is the strained relationship between Anne and Jenny, who have taken incredibly different paths in life. Anne works a fairly ordinary auditing job, discarded by her co-workers and not having any real friends while Jenny is living out of her car without a stable job or income to her name. Both characters are incredibly distinctive with strong voices. While the immediate goal established in the film is to find enough money to get Anne’s dog back, the real heart of the story is found in Anne and Jenny reconciling their differences.

Awkwafina and Oh both have plenty of moments to shine in their roles, with Oh being the standout. The comedic style of the film is often incredibly out-there and outlandish, something that Awkwafina and Oh’s timing nails. Ferrell’s role is also refreshingly dialed down from the typical roles that Ferrell gets in comedies while the late Paul Ruebens has a nice tribute toward the end.

However, when it comes to Jen D’Angelo’s script, the jokes feel pretty hit-or-miss and can begin to feel repetitive. The direction that scenes take is often fairly predictable, which is the biggest issue of the film: it’s just not that special or memorable.

With such a smart and sharp main character found in Anne, it’s natural that something had to happen to create higher stakes for her to not only successfully get on the game show but also be in the running to win. The answer here? Getting her to take too many drugs before her first audition, causing her to lose all sense of where she is and what she’s doing. This is a trope that so many road-trip comedy movies like Quiz Lady have relied on over the decades for both unexpected comedy and heightened stakes. It’s just been done so many times. The entire scene, as visually fun as it may be, feels stale and repetitive from the get-go. This is just one example of the film’s over-reliance on gags and jokes that have been done better in other comedies.

The emotional core of the film never quite lands as hard as it should, especially with some of the uneven tonal shifts between comedy and drama. The mixture of the more gentle instrumentation by composers DeVotchKa and Nick Urata with pop songs is a clear example of this disconnect. The typical “low” point at the end of the second act in buddy comedies also comes way too early on and feels forced into place, when it seemed like there was more exploration needed with Anne and Jenny’s relationship. The ultimate place the story ends up is sweet but not fully earned.

Despite its missed answers, Quiz Lady is still a charming and entertaining film. It goes exactly in the direction that audiences expect without leaving much more to chew on, making it an easy and recommendable choice for a night in on streaming. It’s just unfortunate, with this level of comedic talent, that it took the safe route.

Quiz Lady will be available to stream on Hulu on November 3, 2023. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OzaexEqDa8]