"Easter Sunday": a review of the first Filipino Hollywood film
Jo Koy, a Filipino-American comedian, stars in this all Filipino cast film about a single dad and struggling actor who tries to keep his family together on Easter Sunday.
Petty Titas, karaoke nights, dysfunctional family reunions, and tables and tables of lumpia and empanadas are amongst the familiar Filipino feats of this year’s Easter Sunday release featuring Filipino-American comedian, Jo Koy, as Joe Valencia as he tries to fix his dysfunctional family in California.
Filled with cheesy laughs and Filipino-isms that make it relatable to Fil-Ams, Easter Sunday is a family-friendly film that explores the complexities of Filipino-American families and get-togethers. With a sub-plot of Joe’s cousin’s mixup with Dev Deluxe (played by Asif Ali), the film turns into a bundle of chaos as Joe tries to juggle keeping his family together and ensuring Manny Pacquiao’s gloves go into Filipino hands.
I love Jo Koy and his shows are always incredibly funny and filled with laughs, particularly when he pokes fun at his Filipino-American identity and family. There was a partial scene in the church where he did a stand-up bit when he was pressured by the priest and church-goers, a scene that made me laugh so hard. It was a perfect scene with clever jokes that, aside from showing Jo Koy’s natural talent in comedy, tied the whole film together like a bow-tie.
Most of the film was filled with cringe-worthy one-liners and some stale acting, in particular Brandon Wardell who plays Junior, Joe Valencia’s teenage son. I believe that his role as a half-white and half-Filipino westernized kid is important to show the complexities of the Filipino-American identity, but his acting wasn’t strong enough that, rather than laughing at the jokes, I was laughing at his awkward acting.
What are your thoughts on the film if you’ve seen it? Did you also like it, or do you also have some criticisms?
Whilst the story is lighthearted and relatable (my favorite of all is ang tsismosang titas/titos played by Rodney To, Melody Butiu, and Joey Guila), overall it seemed a little underwhelming and generic. It’s understandable the direction the writers were heading, which I feel is a slow and digestible introduction to Filipino-American culture, but I believe that it could have been stronger.
Despite all my comments, I respect the film for putting the foot on the door for Filipinos in the American film industry. Representation matters, and to see this on the big screen will inspire many others from our community to write about the Filipino experience. Even though it stumbled in the box office this opening weekend, earning around $5.3 million over the weekend which is in eighth place so far, the film strengthened the sense of community for Filipinos. The LF Network (or @nycfilipinos on Instagram) organized a private screening in collaboration with the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and Project Barkada.
Whilst the movie is just an easy watch, it’s still a great film with great actors making their contributions to produce the first ever all-Filipino cast! Let’s hope on more films like this that are empowering, diverse, and expand representation.