Comedy has a lot of answers


Quiz Lady (2023)  ★★★

AWKWAFINA and Sandra Oh have some great chemistry in the overlooked American comedy Quiz Lady.

The pair play sisters in a love-hate relationship who are forced together to help their gambling addicted mother.

Anne (Awkwafina) is the younger sibling. On paper she has her life together, owning an apartment and having a decent job. But she has lived in the shadows of the other women in the family all her life, has no partner or friends and has been obsessed with a television game show since she was four.

On receiving news that Mum has fled her nursing home for Macau, Anne is reunited with older sister Jenny (Oh) who moves in wither her “for a few days”. Jenny is a whirlwind of unfinished projects and wild ideas who has recently been sleeping in her car.

They then find out that Mum owes a loan shark $8,000, leading Jenny to devise a plan that will see the reluctant Anne go on the quiz to win the required money.

It may not have much you haven’t seen before in American comedies, but it’s definitely a notch above thanks to the pairing and some deft lines, particularly from Oh’s character.

Will Ferrell is also funny as Terry McTeer, the lame, long-time host of the quiz, and Jason Schwartzman is even better as the current champion who is adamant he will eventually become so successful and popular that he will take the host’s spot.

Watched at home on Disney