Hulu’s “Quiz Lady” benefits from the comedic talents of the brilliant Sandra Oh

We here at the Lakshmi and Asha Show love a good road-trip comedy. Any time a group of people (or a duo) are stuck in a confined space for hours on end, you’re bound to get some drama. From the classics: “Thelma and Louise”, “The Blues Brothers”, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (etc), to the three “Harold and Kumar” movies and “Little Miss Sunshine” the appeal of this genre endures. 

This year has given us two road trip movies starring Asian-American women: this summer’s “Joy Ride”, and now “Quiz Lady”, which premiered this week on Hulu. "Quiz Lady" stars Sandra Oh and Awkwafina as a pair of sisters who couldn’t be more different and as soon as we saw the trailer we knew we had to watch it. 

Anne (Awkwafina) is an accountant in her 30s, who lives alone with her dog Mr. Linguini, and watches the Jeopardy-esque show, "Can't Stop the Quiz" religiously. She hates any sort of attention, and keeps to herself in the back corner cubicle at work. Her sister Jenny (Sandra Oh), is (obviously), the opposite. Ten years older than Anne, Jenny still dresses and acts like a teenager, and is still chasing "her dream". Which generally means living out of her car and trying to make a quick buck.

The sisters are mostly estranged until their mother's nursing home calls to tell them their mother is gone. Unfortunately their mother is a gambling addict who owes $80k to a shady bookie, and he tracks the sisters down to get his money back. Neither of them have this kind of cash, so Jenny comes up with the brilliant idea that Anne should compete on the quiz show. Wacky hijinks ensue along the way, obviously.

'Quiz Lady" is currently streaming on Hulu.

Asha: Sandra Oh is so good no matter what! Obviously this role is playing against her typical "type", and she's really having fun with it.

Lakshmi: Yes, that was definitely the most striking part of this film. I don't think I've seen Sandra Oh do straight comedy before? (But I am most familiar with her from her Grey's Anatomy days)

Oh-- and she was on Arli$$ back in the day, I guess? If anyone remembers Arli$$ hahaha

Asha: I’ve never heard of it!

Lakshmi: It was HBO's first hit show a zillion years ago.

But it was so interesting to see Sandra play the zany character and Awkwafina play the straight-laced serious one.

Asha: She was also in Sideways, which you could call a comedy, but her role wasn't exactly comedic. Also another road trip movie!

Lakshmi: I've never seen Sideways!

Asha: Really?! You should watch it

Lakshmi: I've also never paid attention to Killing Eve - so I am sadly unfamiliar with Sandra's famous (non Cristina Yang) roles!

Asha: And obviously she was Principal Gupta in The Princess Diaries, who was unintentionally funny.

Lakshmi: Ah yes.

But also- I kept thinking this as I was watching: this movie was marvelously low stakes in a very Hulu way? Like it felt like a Hulu movie

Asha: I didn't think of it that way, but it's true!

Lakshmi: I don't mean that in a negative way at all- it just felt very at home on that streamer

Asha: Yes, Anne's dog has been kidnapped, but that's about as high as the stakes get…

Lakshmi: Like the other road-trip movie we saw--Plan B! Which is obviously higher stakes, but zany in the same ways.

Asha: Yes! Exactly like that.

And it’s especially not very high stakes because  the bookie doesn't torture the dog, in fact the exact opposite, he treats the dog like a king!

Lakshmi: I also kept thinking that Mr Linguini is an excellent pet name

Asha: It is.

Lakshmi: Someone here should steal it!

Asha: I also like that they acknowledge the absurdity of a 20yr old dog.

Lakshmi: But let's back up a little.

So when Anne is called into the nursing home and she's told that they "lost her mom". The delivery was perfect – even though I knew what the punchline would be it still hit haha

Asha: Delivery is everything.

Lakshmi: (She is literally lost because she left the facility)

Asha: I also loved that Anne asks the staff member if they've looked in all the casinos. The mom is clearly an exasperating character for the staff and they are not sad that she's disappeared for the umpteenth time.

Lakshmi: She is goals.

Asha: Well...maybe not goals…because she seems like a handful and she wasn't a great mother

Lakshmi: That's true. 

It's also clear that Jenny is very much her daughter. Jenny is also a handful and directionless. Anne clearly had to raise herself (with assists from Jenny, who was in over her head)

This comes up later!

Asha: Kimmy Yam addresses this in her NBC Asian-America piece

The family tensions, experts say, are not unlike those that immigrant families often contend with due immense pressures to make it in America. And, Yuen noted, the characters’ wildly contrasting personalities are representative reactions to those tensions, with Anne withdrawing from the world, and Jenny seeking adventure and escape. 

Lakshmi: It's interesting and fun too that an iconic game show is central to the plot, because game shows are such big parts of the lives of immigrant families. WE LOVED GAME SHOWS GROWING UP. We would watch Jeopardy the way Anne watches this weird knock off show

Asha: So we didn't watch game shows, but we did have our specific shows that we watched –

Star Trek:TNG and Murder She Wrote – and the beautiful thing about them is that they were so steady and comforting.

Lakshmi: And also dependendable and family friendly- like there was nothing shocking on those shows

Asha: Exactly!

Also those were the days when you had to sit down at a specific time to watch a show (I kind of miss that although the flexibility of streaming is also nice), so it was family time essentially

Lakshmi: I appreciated this line in the NYT review (speaking of comedic timing and Sandra Oh):

It’s often said that comedic roles are deceptively trickier to play than dramatic ones, and Jenny is the type of character that would seem rife with potential pitfalls for an actor like Oh: an over-the-top eccentric whose humor can easily fall into caricature. Yet, “Quiz Lady,” a mostly winning comedy directed by Jessica Yu, is elevated most of all on the shoulders of Oh’s delightful and nuanced performance.

Asha: It's how you can tell how good an actor she is But I also had to agree with rogerebert.com's review:

"Unfortunately, Awkwafina’s muted performance often borders on one-note. Other than the particularly delightful drug trip sequence, she’s never able to convey what’s really going on under the surface for Anne."

Lakshmi: OK, so I texted you this last night, but also why was she SLOUCHING so much

I said this about The Farewell too! Her gait is very weird! (And I say this as someone with a weird gait!) But she lumbers a lot…

Asha: I didn't remember that from The Farewell, but now that I've watched the trailer again, you're totally right!

Lakshmi: It's just very interesting

Asha: I'm trying to remember if her character in Crazy Rich Asians slouched like that...

Lakshmi: I can't remember either, but that character was also just strange in general.

Asha: It does feel really exaggerated here.

Lakshmi: Or Ocean's 8…will need to look at Ocean's 8 again as part of this important investigation…

Part of it makes sense for the character-- as you mentioned in the intro. Anne is someone who is uncomfortable being seen. Even at her office (where she's worked for quite a while!) she tries to minimize herself. So being on the show really reflects her desperation to get her dog back/fix her family, because it is so far out of her comfort zone, it is in a different universe.

Asha: I did like that she had an alarm on her phone that said "stand up so you don't get blood clots!"

Lakshmi: Ha, I should use that

Asha: Anne also has a nosy neighbor who she avoids – or tries of avoid – who's played by Holland Taylor. She cracked me up every time she was on the screen

Lakshmi: This cast was pretty star studded in general, and yes she was specifically great

Will Ferrell plays the game show host Terry McTeer, and obviously he drew on his Celebrity Jeopardy! SNL days a lot for this haha

Asha: Obviously! But a genteel version. He has his signature look: a bow tie, and he never wears the same one twice!

Tony Hale of Arrested Development fame plays the owner of a Ben Franklin-themed inn in Philadelphia, who dresses as Ben Franklin and pretends not to understand modern technology…

Lakshmi: Also- I thought it was extra funny that the road trip was to Philadelphia and not LA or New York or a city more associated with television production

Asha: well auditions for these kinds of things are usually held in every major city

and Philly would be on that list

Lakshmi: True, true

Asha: Plus it made for some good jokes.

One thing we should mention is that the movie features flashbacks to Anne and Jenny's childhood. So the audience can see the chaos that was happening around them.

Lakshmi: Which that NBC article alluded to with the trauma in their lives. Their father walked out on their mother and that led to a lot of chaos that no one was able to handle. 

Asha: Their father walked out on their mother specifically because of her gambling addiction

(which actually makes you wonder how she got custody...)

Lakshmi: It was the 90s…

Did you have a final thought

Asha: My final thought it that watching this movie was a fun way to spend 99min. 

Lakshmi: Yes, I loved that the run time was so manageable

Asha: And my final final thought is that I enjoyed Paul Reubens’ cameo (final film role, RIP)

Lakshmi: Aww I forgot he was no longer here! RIP.

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