Written by Andreas Babiolakis

On paper, Jessica Yu’s latest film Quiz Lady sounds like a riot. You have stars Awkwafina and Sandra Oh swapping their roles, where the former is the mature voice of reason in a family that is falling apart while the latter is an eccentric soul with an even louder wardrobe and fashion sense. Awkwafina plays Anne Yum: a lonely millennial who lives with her dog, Mr. Linguini, and watches the game show Can’t Stop the Quiz at the same time every day (she is also a major fan of the show’s host Terry McTeer, played by Will Ferrell which harkens me back to the best days of Saturday Night Live where he would be his own universe’s version of Alex Trebek in the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches). Her older sister Jenny (Oh) reunites with her once they both are informed that they lost their mother at the retirement home (but, really, they “lost” the mother because she ran away, not because she died); Mrs. Yum is fleeing because she owes eighty thousand dollars in gambling debts. Anne is forced to answer for her mother’s mistakes as Mr. Linguini gets kidnapped. How will she and sister Jenny get this money in the two-week window they’ve been given? Jenny records Anne during an episode of Can’t Stop the Quiz and it goes viral with Anne being christened “Quiz Lady” by the front page of Reddit, and suddenly the show wants her to audition. The stars are aligning.

While things seem to fall in place for Quiz Lady conceptually, despite the path being presented before us, Yu’s film still somehow gets sidetracked to the point of nonsensicality. A subplot involving an ongoing lawsuit Jenny has filed becomes redundant yet important all within the same film and neither for plausible, storytelling reasons (she sees fit to lie about her lying about her lie? Huh?). The Mr. Linguini story thread becomes borderline pointless when you find out it really isn’t needed at all and is just there to fluff the film up to a longer runtime. The film makes a stance on stereotypes yet Mr. Linguini’s capturers start throwing shurikens. Suddenly it’s apparent that the film is set up for great comedy, for Awkwafina and Sandra Oh to shine, and that’s about it. In these ways, the film does thrive. Awkwafina is purposefully stiff, gruff, and also empathetically antisocial. You can sense years of self-reliance and societal disappointment in her performance, and it brings life to a character in a film that doesn’t feel rooted in reality whatsoever. Oh is a great opposite here as she is loud and chaotic (but never annoyingly so), earnestly expressive, and clearly someone who is a bit too optimistic in a cruel world (but at least someone is being chipper, right?). Together, they are comedic gold, and it’s as if Quiz Lady was made just for this pairing to happen. I’d give it a pass if this was the case.

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh are perfect in *Quiz Lady*: a film that would collapse without the richness of their comedic chemistry.

While the film made me laugh numerous times — and quite heartily at that — Quiz Lady is still quite a head-scratcher as a story that falls apart greater and greater the more you think about it. In some ways, this is a relatable film about an everyday person having a big break, but then it dips into absurdist territory. On the other hand, it isn’t completely bonkers like, say, Anchorman, to the point of being recognizably unfamiliar. Because it rests right in the middle of both tones, Quiz Lady kind of flounders narratively. If it focused strictly on the storyline of Anne being too shy to audition for her favourite game show while her sister makes her a viral internet sensation, we could have had something wholesome and invigorating here. If Quiz Lady went all-in on the kookiness of its subplots like the Benjamin Franklin-themed hotel (yes, this is a thing), the kidnappers of Mr. Linguini (you can’t have a sociopolitical stance and then make the same joke you’re condemning), and et cetera, we’d have a comedy that came from another dimension that I think would work better.

As it stands, Quiz Lady is well intentioned and quite strong as a comedy, but it is incredibly uneven as something substantial. During the film’s climax when our two protagonists bond closer than ever before, it’s apparent that this could have been a film with as much heart as it has laughs, and I can’t help but wonder what could have been a tremendous dramedy had Quiz Lady been more focused. I’d still call Quiz Lady loads of fun, but I’m also generously turning a blind eye for a film that did leave me in stitches during a few moments. Not that every film has to be serious or make perfect sense, but Quiz Lady shows signs of a stronger comedy that still makes you laugh while showcasing the full potential you sense is there. Instead we get a roaring good time and an itch to either relive the best moments on YouTube or to search for your next evening programme.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.