Jo Koy's 'Easter Sunday' feels less like a star vehicle and more like an audition tape. Our review.
And Koy’s on-screen alter ego, Joe Valencia, is a lot like performer himself, or at least a version of him. Harried and hard-working, he does his best to be there for his teenage son Joe Jr. , but rarely succeeds. An early scene shows Joe struggling — and failing — to make it to a parent-teacher conference discussing Joe Jr.’s abysmal grades, a meeting he misses because he’s across town at a second callback for the sitcom role that could change his life. His ex-wife isn’t terribly sympathetic.
As if being an absentee dad straight out of a Nineties family film wasn’t enough, Joe is also under constant pressure from his mom Susan , who hides her insecurities behind a strident taskmaster facade. This is a Filipino thing, the movie explains, as are feuding aunties, karaoke parties, Lou Diamond Phillips, and creepy statues of the Santo Niño that seem to follow you around the room with their eyes.
An affable fount of corny dad jokes, Joe is eclipsed by the film’s wackier supporting characters once he and Junior drive from Los Angeles to the Filipino enclave of Daly City, CA. for a holiday visit with the family. Chief among these is his loser cousin Eugene , who blew the $20,000 Joe gave him to start a taco truck on designer shoelaces and a colorful paint job for his so-called “Hype Truck.
It’s clear that Jo Koy loves his relatives, and wants the world to know it. It’s just that his style would be better served within the more earnest confines of a traditional multi-cam sitcom. His character’s longing for a regular job where he’s home in time for dinner reads like a subconscious plea to Hollywood, and makes the film’s ending feels like wish fulfillment. Hopefully some studio executive out there will take the hint.
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