IT’S NOT PERFECT, BUT IT’S FUN, AND A TEAR-JERKER
Did I ever tell you how amazing it is that any movie, good or bad, large or micro-budget, makes it to screen? Well, it is. The journey of filmmaking is usually an incredible story within itself, filled with conflict at every corner, and behind-the-scenes sagas that are – sometimes, more interesting than the movie itself. I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking, “Steve, why aren’t you in the movie business?” Well, to answer your questions all at once, “It’s because it’s hell.” I produced three TV shows, and I can tell ya, it’s – it’s – hmmm – It’s not fun producing these works of art, especially when you’re dealing with creative differences, egos, scheduling, studio – and my favorite, extraordinary favorite – unions.
So, onto Quiz Lady.
Quiz Lady’s production journey was rather interesting. Pre-production started in 2020 at Netflix. Jen D’Angelo was hired to pen a script starring Sandra Oh and Awkwafina. 2022 rolls around, and they start filming. The only thing is that Netflix is gone, 20th Century has the rights, and Will Ferrell is now one of the producers. Think about that. This movie spent two whole years in pre-production, and that’s with a great screenwriter, and two great actresses attached to this project. You would think, with that package of talent, you could start principal photography any day now. But apparently, that wasn’t the case. It’s NEVER the case.
Quiz Lady is a great movie. It’s not perfect, but that doesn’t matter. Let’s get into the mix of things.
DIRECTION AND THE SCRIPT
Jessica Yu, an extremely talented and trusted film and television director, called the shots on Quiz Lady. Jen D’Angelo penned the script, and her long list of television writing credits is nothing short of awesome. This is a perfect example of A-List talent brought onto a project to get things done.
What’s interesting here is that Jen D’Angelo, who is also one of the producers of Quiz Lady, did not choose to director her own movie, even though she is an accomplished actress and screenwriter. Usually, actors, writers, cinematographers, and stunt coordinators have a dire thirst to direct. But it seems as though Jen D’Angelo decided to stay in her lane, and to produce and write. Jessica Yu was hired to bring her vision to fruition.
Yu is primarily an episodic television director. And like most television directors, they direct one episode, maybe two, for that series, and they are done. They are hired guns. Their job – to follow the script, to direct the egos of the cast in a certain direction, and primarily to fulfill the creative vision of the showrunner, for that one episode. They are not there to offer any creative input, for the most part. They are there to make sure pages of a script are shot well, and delivered on-time.
One of the major challenges when working with comedians is that they don’t follow what’s on paper. They sometimes overly improv, rather than thinking about what’s honest with the written character. That’s where good direction comes into play. So, Jessica Yu had to give space for these comedians to work, while keeping the characters on par. There’s a really good balance here of useless comedy and character growth. She really knows her stuff.
Element-wise, there’s a lot of useless comedy that doesn’t contribute anything to the story. It’s just there to make you laugh. But this is something only anal-retentive screenwriters, like myself, would notice. Therefore, our opinion doesn’t count. A movie doesn’t have to be perfect to be perfectly good.
GRADE: A
ANNE: UNHEALTHY TYPE FIVE “INTELLECT”
Awkwafina, in my opinion, is one of the most talented actresses out there. She can literally play any character convincingly. And her on-screen chemistry, with anyone she shares the screen with, not just in this movie, is incredible. For this movie, Awkwafina played a typical unhealthy Type Five “Intellect.” It’s important to note that while the Enneagram labels this type of personality type an Intellect, their brightness only resides in a very narrow lane. Einstein created the Theory of Relativity, but he did nothing with it. Einstein also never learned to drive a car, wasn’t a very good teacher, not a great talker. He also tried to reinvent the wing, but that obviously failed.
Awkwafina’s character, Anne, is your cliché Einstein, or typical Type 5. She was great at one thing: The Quiz Show. But everything else in life, she was either mediocre or terrible at. And, like most Type 5’s, she was socially awkward.
If you’re wondering, Type 5’s are not usually fun characters to have in a script. In fact, they can be rather depressing. You should almost never write a scientist as a Type 5, unless you’re looking for a character who is deeply strange, introverted, and depressed most of the time. Scientists are best written as a Type 7 (Doc Brown), or a Type 3 (Iron Man).
JENNY: UNHEALTHY TYPE 3 “Achiever” or UNHEALTHY TYPE 7 “Enthusiasts”
To be honest, you could write this character as a Type 3 or a Type 7, and come up with a character that is pretty much what you’ll see in this movie. There’s a lot of 7 in Jenny, as she has a hard time settling down on a single career. Then there’s a lot of 3 in Jenny, as she’s very much image-oriented, and tends to con everyone, including Anne. The screenwriter probably based Jenny on multiple she knew in her past life, and didn’t mirror a single personality type.
In real life, Jenny would probably be closer to a Type 3. But Type 3’s would be very successful at something, even if it’s lying and being a con artist.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Unfortunately, the rest of the cast lacked character depth. More than likely, the director depended on very talented actors, to bring life to flatly written characters. All of your characters should be given a personality type on the Enneagram. If you don’t do this, you’ll just end up projecting yourself into your script, and a dishonest storyline.
Quiz Lady does lose itself from time to time, and it feels as though these spaces for ludicrous comedy are there to pad thin script. There are a lot of problems with this movie, but again, that doesn’t make it fail.
GRADE: C
IT HAS A LOT OF HEART
While the 2nd half of the 2nd Act loses its voice, the movie finishes strong with a great 3rd act. Technically, a movie only has to have a strong 1st act to keep the audience from walking out of the theater. If the 1st Act is strong, that will usually keep an audience glued to their seats until the midpoint scene, which usually is about an hour into the movie. From there, usually, the audience will stick around until the end to see what happens. So, what really matters is finishing strong, and that’s exactly what this movie does. Once Anne gets on the Quiz Show, which is the entire 3rd Act, it’s nothing but good times from there.
GRADE: A-
Steve Young
