'Slanted' Review
- Tiffany McLaughlin
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 03/13/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Comedy. Drama. Horror. SciFi.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Bleecker Street.
The Verdict: A Maybe
Slanted plucks a little bit from Get Out and The Substance and pairs it with the comedy of Bottoms and Mean Girls to create a fresh blunt commentary on the reality of being an "other" in white America.
Shirley Chen plays Joan, a Chinese-American high school senior, whose dream is to become prom queen. She tries to change her appearance in small ways to match the physical attributes of her white classmates, but still finds herself overlooked. Being fed up with microaggressions and lack of human decency, she chooses to undergo a surgery to alter her skin pigmentation to become a white girl, who is then played by Mckenna Grace. Her parents are understandably horrified, and try to ask the doctor to reverse the surgery to no avail- its permanent. Joan begins to navigate school as a new student going by the name Jo, while also embracing her new treatment as a white person. Forgetting about her old friend Olivia, she moves on to befriend the popular girls in hopes of getting their support to make her prom queen.
Director Amy Wang does not shy away from the absurdity of the premise of Slanted, with comedic reflections of society spilling into the dialogue and production design, but the root of why Joan felt the need to do it in the first place is what makes it so heartbreaking. Joan's family dynamic was so well written and executed, her parents in particular really sell the severity of Joan's decision to reject her culture and betray her family, her only true friend, and herself.
While Slanted nails the balance of being a dark comedy, I wish it would have leaned into more of its Cronenberg-esque body horror to help level out the oddly paced runtime. There is build up and build up, but then it feels like it trickles down to a mild payoff and then slows itself down again to the point of dimming its potency in its final moments. There were quite a few moments I thought were going to go over the edge, but sadly didn't.
Slanted is easy to enjoy and have fun with, yet it doesn't lose any of the impact of its message which is important and relevant now, forever, and always. I'm eager to see what's next for Amy Wang. I think she's a perfect director to carry her ideas further into the horror sphere.
