Easter Sunday

“The Asian filmmakers behind Easter Sunday blissfully craft a film that avoids the white gaze.”

Title: Easter Sunday (2022)
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar 👨🏽🇺🇸
Writers: Story by Ken Cheng 👨🏻🇬🇧 and screenplay by Ken Cheng 👨🏻🇬🇧 and Kate Angelo 👩🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 4/5

In an impressive debut as leading man, Jo Koy makes the transition from stand-up comedian to actor without skipping a beat. Easter Sunday features his brand of his race- and family-based comedy, seen on stage or in Netflix specials like 2019’s Comin’ in Hot, while director Jay Chandrasekhar (a stand-up comic himself) deftly delivers Koy’s pitch-perfect timing and charisma to the silver screen.

As viewers follow the rocky relationship between middle-aged actor hopeful Joe Valencia (Koy) and his exasperated son Junior (Brandon Wardell), the humor takes flight, snappily switching from quick-hit punchlines to longer bits. This easy ebb and flow keeps the film engaging, avoiding the common pitfall of comedies that sink into plot-heavy quagmires halfway through. However, perhaps because writers Ken Cheng and Kate Angelo rely so heavily on jokes to keep things interesting, emotional underpinnings take a backseat.

Easter Sunday’s central plot of a complicated family coming together to break bread has tearjerker potential. Unfortunately, a lack of interest in the film’s ensemble beyond their laugh lines squanders such potential, leaving something flimsy behind. In particular, the ostensibly main characters of Joe’s mother Susan (Lydia Gaston) and Tita Teresa (Tia Carrere) are hastily sketched. While silliness is to be expected from any comedy, the extent to which Easter Sunday glibly rushes through its final scenes makes the overall experience cotton-candy-light, though just as sweet.

Gender: 3.75/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

If you’re going by the numbers, Easter Sunday happily reaches gender parity. The plot concerns a tiff between sisters that son/nephew Joe must smooth out. Other female characters like Joe’s sister Regina (Elena Juatco), Junior’s new friend Tala (Eva Noblezada), or Tita Yvonne (Melody Butiu) round out the cast, keeping the film’s big cast gender balanced.

But if we’re looking for depth, Easter Sunday disproportionately spends its narrative currency on men. Joe and Junior’s relationship is developed through multiple scenes, both made empathetic by seeing their respective goals and desires. Susan and Tita Teresa see no such humanization, existing mainly as flat caricatures. They’re affectionately rendered, yes, but the cold war between them simply thaws too quickly, without much explanation at all, to have the impact filmmakers had likely hoped for. By taking these shortcuts, any heft from its female leads is lost.

Tito Manny, Joe’s sister Regina, Tita Teresa, Tita Yvonne, Joe’s mother Susan, and Tito Arthur (left to right)

Race: 5/5

It’s not hard to see why a film pitched by biracial Filipino American Koy, written by British-born Chinese Cheng, and directed by Tamil American Chandrasekhar might skate through this category. The trio of Asian creators—and comedians, as all three have stand-up experience—blissfully crafts a film that avoids the white gaze. Depictions of Pinoy culture flow naturally, generally avoiding self-conscious exposition. At most, Tala’s crash course on halo-halo to Junior seems tailored more for an unversed audience than Junior himself, but beyond that, repurposed tubs of Cool Whip, Baby Jesus statuettes, and a zealous worship of Manny Pacquiao are baked into the film using a distinctly Fil-Am perspective.

Other comedians of color like Jimmy O. Yang (Chinese American), Tiffany Haddish (Black), and Asif Ali (East Indian American) enjoy lively parts as a merch dealer, ex-girlfriend-turned-traffic-cop, or cartoon villain, respectively. The director himself plays Joe’s ridiculous agent, delivering a recurring joke that had the theater audience chuckling each time during my viewing. And while their characters may be one-dimensional, they collectively hammer home the sense that Easter Sunday originates from a non-white worldview.

Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.25/5

It feels a bit weird for an Easter-themed movie to come out in August, but there’s no doubting its rewatch value the next time your grocery aisles turn pastel. Slick visuals and effortless family comedy make for a wholesome good time. The fact that Easter Sunday boasts a refreshing Filipino American perspective is just the cherry on top.

Like Easter Sunday? Try these other films by Pinoy storytellers.

Grade: BLiAugust 5, 2022Female/Nonbinary Creator