Dysfunctional families and weird characters are now a Hollywood staple – in fact a normal family would be a rarity. In Jessica Yu’s Quiz Lady that won the Outstanding Television Movie Award at this year’s Emmys, the Yum women are just plain batty.
Brought up in a broken home, Annie Yum (Awkwafina), shuts out the sounds of her parents’ bickering and her much older sister’s constant drama by getting fixated in a TV quiz show hosted by Terry McTier (Will Farrell). When she grows up, she works in a low key job as an accountant, but never misses the show, as she rattles off the correct answers. Her sister Jenny (Sandra Oh), wanted to be an actress, but turns out to be a loud, overdressed hippie, annoyed that her Asian race does not let her get ahead.
Their mother, who lives in a retirement home, vanishes one day, leaving huge gambling debts to loan sharks, who demand their money from the sisters. Much to Annie’s annoyance, her broke sister turns up to crash on her couch, supposedly to help but actually to bully her into doing whatever she wants. As a hostage, the thugs take Annie’s beloved dog Mr Linguini and she is inconsolable.
Jenny decides that the only way to get the money to rescue the dog is for Annie to participate in the quiz show, which she is bound to win. Annie is horrified at appearing in public– she is the kind who walks around with a hunch to deflect any attention. Her sister, on the other hand, is an attention-junkie, always shrieking at high volume to make people turn to look at her.
First Jenny uploads a video of her sister watching at home and giving correct answers, which goes viral, Annie is labelled ‘Quiz Lady’ and invited to audition for the show. Jenny does all it takes–including kidnapping her sister in the trunk of her car– to push Annie into the participant’s chair, giving her drugs to boost her confidence and defeat the super-aggressive regular winner, Ron Heacox (Jason Schwartzman).
The film is sweet and mostly funny, but also loud and overdone in places, with oddball characters, like the Ben Franklin impersonator at the inn they stay in. There is a strange kind of empathy between the sisters, even though they never got along. Jenny was always annoyed by the much younger Annie with her anxiety and quirks; Annie cannot stand the noise, mess and hair extensions dropping all over her neat home. Still, when it comes down to the show, the sisters are able to draw on their past memories to win a round.
Quiz Lady was a strange Emmy winner—the only nominee, so a one-horse race!—but it has enough merit, and a brisk runtime, to earn a viewing.
Quiz Lady
Directed by Jessica Yu
Cast: Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, Will Farrell and others
