Entertainment
Mckenna Grace Stars in a Sharp Body Horror Teen Movie
Although the kind of story it told was far from original, the success of Coralie Fargeat‘s The Substance seems to have kicked off a trend for body horror movies that explore the psychology of women’s beauty standards. Last year’s Shell looked more at the cynical corporate side of creating insecurities to sell solutions to, and now Amy Wang‘s feature debut Slanted takes it in the direction of the erasure of cultural heritage. It’s a wickedly entertaining movie which, despite a couple of minor drawbacks, manages to make some interesting points about the self-image of Americans from immigrant families, and about teenage girls.
What Is ‘Slanted’ About?
Joan (Shirley Chen) and her parents came to America when she was a child, and ten years later, she is a high-schooler looking forward to prom. She desperately wants to be voted prom queen, but feels constantly sidelined or overlooked by those around her. She uses a face-tuning app that makes her look white, to such an extent that the company that operates it, Ethnos Inc., starts messaging her with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She relents and finds herself in the suspicious office of Dr. Singer (R. Keith Harris), who promises her a pain-free, recovery-free operation that will permanently transform her into a beautiful white woman. She takes little convincing and undergoes the operation, waking up in the body of Mckenna Grace, and she sets about establishing a new life for herself under the pseudonym Jo.
Of course, what first appears to be a dream come true ends up being something of a Faustian pact, one that forces Joan to really look at herself and consider who she is and why she felt so othered in the first place. Her parents, played wonderfully by Vivian Wu and Fang Du, are the important straight men in this surprisingly funny dystopian story. They are completely blindsided by Joan’s surgery — one she tricks them into signing consent forms for — and outraged that she would want to shed her Chinese heritage. They serve as constant reminders to Joan of the characteristics she feels embarrassed and held back by, and ultimately as the emotional core of the story.
‘Slanted’ Is a Strange New Breed of Teen Movie
You get a bit of everything with Slanted. You might think you’re going into a body horror or sci-fi movie from the setup, but it spins out into a Mean Girls-style high school comedy at times, before reining it back in to very emotional drama territory akin to Thirteen. You could say that it has some tonal inconsistencies and doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, but this is played off quite well as reflecting the fast pace and spontaneity of being a teenager. Joan makes several quick and very dumb decisions over the course of the movie that make you wonder just what the hell she thought would happen as a result — the surgery itself being the biggest. She just comes home one day in an entirely different body and expects her parents to go about their lives as normal, and not completely freak out and need convincing that a stranger hasn’t wandered into their home. She doesn’t even tell her best friend what she’s done. For all intents and purposes, Joan Huang just vanishes.
This is very much one of those allegorical movies that you have to switch off the logical side of your brain for. It’s taking place in a vaguely alternate universe in which scientific impossibilities are shrugged off and explained away as, “I dunno — science?” What we’re really here to do is consider how a young Chinese girl feels growing up in a very proudly white place. The opening scene sees Joan being driven through town on her first day of school, and every billboard is plastered with sexy young white women, while all the stores have darkly hilarious names like Prayers & Ammo. The writing and production design go a long way in satirizing the American way of life for all its chest-beating glorification, lending the movie that pitch-black humor that stops it from feeling too preachy or boring. In this world, it is no wonder that Joan feels like she doesn’t belong, and that all her problems would be solved if she were white.
Race and Cultural Heritage Are At The Heart of ‘Slanted’
The movie says as much. Dr. Singer’s office has videos playing of previous patients explaining how being white has transformed their lives. One was able to become a vet, and says even the animals treat her differently. Another is now able to accuse waiters of sexual harassment and get free meals out of it. Imagine the possibilities! It is notable that almost all the white characters in the movie, including those who are Ethnos patients, are not supermodel types like Margaret Qualley in The Substance. They are actually quite ordinary looking people, which serves to emphasize that whiteness really is the point. You don’t have to be hot; you just have to be the right color, and then you get to play life on easy mode. There is a particularly on-the-nose scene towards the end in which the movie’s message is spoken out loud, admittedly in quite thought-provoking ways, but again, because our protagonist is a teenage girl, the movie gets away with spelling things out for her. Seeing this struggle through the eyes of a teenager, and all the highly emotional, easy swayed recklessness that goes with the territory, makes it all much more believable. Young folks are known to dive into situations without considering, or having the capacity to consider, the long-term ramifications, and because we understand that, we never grow to hate or look down on Joan, no matter how much she ends up hurting those around her.
There is a certain universality to the Western teenage experience, but Slanted is a firmly Asian picture, with a considerable majority of its crew coming from Eastern backgrounds. This is an important choice and one that lends the movie a real authenticity. One can only imagine that there were many discussions both on set and behind the scenes about what spoke to the lived experiences of these Asian American artists, and how best to communicate their feelings and stories to the wider, whiter world. Thanks to this authenticity, Slanted manages to make itself accessible to people who have never had to face the struggles it tells of, in the same way that Jordan Peele‘s movies do. Through Wang’s astute direction, some moving performances, and well-rounded vision, it is just as provocative as it needs to be, while making for a very entertaining watch.
Slanted comes to theaters on March 13.
- Release Date
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March 13, 2026
- Runtime
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102 Minutes
- Director
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Amy Wang
- Writers
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Amy Wang
- Producers
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Trevor Wall, Mark Ankner, Amy Wang
- Strong performances offer everything from deep emotion to sharp comedy.
- Writing, direction and production design are well-synced to deliver a stylish and considered movie.
- The movie’s tone is rather inconsistent, but still works well.