Pop Culture Fridays!
Last weekend, the movie Quiz Lady dropped on Hulu.
The comedy follows two Chinese American sisters, played by Awkwafina and Sandra Oh, who hustle to get Awkwafina’s character onto a Jeopardy!-like game show in order for her to win enough money to pay off their mother’s debt.
Y’all.
Do you understand how many people have messaged me saying “omg it’s you!” and “I think you’d like this movie?”
Yes, I am an Asian American woman.
Yes, I am also an Asian American woman who enjoys quizzing.
Does that automatically predispose me to liking the movie Quiz Lady??
The answer is also, reluctantly and predictably, yes.
I went into this film thinking I was going to hate it (I was also massively jealous of screenwriter Jen D’Angelo for beating me to the punch in selling a quiz-related spec). But I ended up finding Quiz Lady simple and heart-warming. It’s silly and unrealistic, sure, but it’s a load of fun and the two leads do such a great job playing off of each other.
But also, way to typecast my viewing habits people! My algorithm is too easily hacked.
Here are your questions:
1. It’s that time of year when films vie for awards attention and actors try to make themselves relatable via Tik Tok or late night talk show. Name any two of the actors playing the title roles in the following biopics:
Priscilla Presley in Priscilla
Bayard Rustin in Rustin
Enzo Ferrari in Ferrari
Napoleon Bonaparte in Napoleon
2. What new Beatles song, which took more than 40 years to complete, has been billed as the Beatles’s “last” song?
3. Emerald Fennell’s latest film takes place at what titular location, a sprawling British estate?
4. What term is used to refer to a romance between two partners with a considerable age difference? This term is also the title of a new Todd Haynes film starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
5. New slang: What term, previously a derogatory insult referring to a woman’s private parts, has been re-claimed by drag ball room culture as something very fierce and “bad bitch-esque”? If you are “serving” THIS, you are powerful and unstoppable!