‘Slanted’ review: SXSW winner is a teen body horror based on ethnicity

Dir/scr: Amy Wang. US. 2025. 104mins 

A darkish, poignant satire about assimilation and feminine magnificence requirements, Slanted stars Shirley Chen as a Chinese language-American teenager who desires of turning into promenade queen — and plans to actually remake herself so as to win the crown. Incomes SXSW’s Narrative Grand Jury Prize, writer-director Amy Wang’s function debut juggles genres for example the distressing diploma to which immigrants attempt to combine themselves right into a white American society that treats them as outsiders. The movie’s weaving of broad comedy, biting commentary and body-horror is typically awkward, however all the time considerate.

Wang lets the script’s jokes and shocks hit with blunt pressure

Slanted’s ensemble contains rising stars Mckenna Grace (the latest Ghostbusters footage) and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (By no means Have I Ever). The catchy premise is bound to encourage comparisons to The Substance and Imply Women, and Wang’s observations about physique picture, sexism and racism make this a well timed narrative. Even when theatrical prospects might solely be modest, optimistic evaluations ought to assist elevate visibility. 

Chen performs Joan Huang, a youngster who moved from China to America together with her mother and father as a toddler and shortly idealised Western requirements for attractiveness. (She litters her bed room wall with cutouts of smiling white feminine celebrities, crafting a imaginative and prescient board of impossibly flawless magnificence to which she aspires.) Envious of her faculty’s widespread white ladies, particularly the attractive Olivia (Amelie Zilber), Joan discovers a mysterious firm named Ethnos, which presents ’ethnic modification’ that may remodel her right into a blonde white bombshell. With out a second’s hesitation, she indicators up for the process, turning into Jo Hunt (Grace). 

Ostensibly, Joan’s want to be Jo is prompted by her ambition to be named promenade queen — a title the teenager struggled to win whereas campaigning as herself. However as Slanted develops, it turns into clear that the crown was merely a symptom of the character’s profound starvation to be accepted. Wang incisively examines the day by day racist microaggressions that Asians and others expertise. Slanted eschews subtlety when it takes intention at how adverts and widespread tradition prioritise white faces and white views, leaving Joan perpetually feeling unworthy and unwelcome.

Viewers are suggested to miss the questionable logic behind Joan’s surgical process, which can’t be reversed. For example, exactly why Ethnos hasn’t attracted extra media consideration — particularly for the reason that firm can apparently remake folks in simply hours— is left unanswered. Additionally, as soon as Jo begins exhibiting up in school, hardly anybody — save for Joan’s one true good friend, Brindha (an amusing however underused Ramakrishnan) — appears involved that Joan has vanished. However plausibility points are, maybe, inappropriate, contemplating the story is generally only a springboard for Wang’s cultural critique. 

Rapidly, Jo insinuates herself with Olivia’s snooty clique, decided to win Olivia’s endorsement for the promenade queen title — and possibly even land her first boyfriend. (A rickety plot level explains that, as a result of Olivia can be away capturing a Hollywood manufacturing, she herself can be ineligible for the crown.) However as a lot as this teenager would possibly be capable to idiot others into considering she’s cool, Jo nonetheless appears like she nonetheless doesn’t belong round her widespread white classmates. That self-loathing solely intensifies as soon as she discovers that the Ethnos process isn’t foolproof, a story improvement that enables make-up artist Sarah Graalman to successfully alter Jo’s countenance in upsetting methods. 

A few of Slanted’s twists play out predictably — that is hardly the primary teen movie through which a quest for reputation seems to be a combined blessing — however Chen’s sweetness and vulnerability are properly paired with Grace’s panic and remorse. Wang lets the script’s jokes and shocks hit with blunt pressure, displaying a confidence that Joan has failed to find in herself. Even when Slanted turns into surprisingly bloody, the writer-director ensures that the anguish of the immigrant expertise programs via each body. As Joan’s mother and father, Vivian Wu and Fang Du convey a touching helplessness as they attempt to raise up their delicate daughter — her transformation into Jo triggers anger and despair that’s movingly depicted.