Directed By Amy Wang

Starring – Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace, Elaine Hendrix

The Plot – An insecure Chinese-American teenager named Joan (Chen) undergoes experimental surgery to appear white (Grace), hoping to secure the prom queen title and peer acceptance.

Rated R for adult language, some sexual material, teen drug use and brief violent content/bloody images.

Slanted | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street

POSITIVES

After The Substance literally and figuratively dissected vanity in the cinematic world of Hollywood with gruesomely grotesque bouts of bodily horror, it was only a matter of time before successors decided to appraise the same exaggerated insight to other worlds, and considering Wang opts for the brutally unrelenting and materialistic side of high school, with all of its internalized cliques and callousness, it feels like the kind of natural progression that practically writes itself for cinematic adaptation, conjuring one impressionable feature length debut for her, in ways where her own Chinese heritage feels advantageous to the movie’s favor. If a white director helmed something as audaciously unapologetic with its satirical commentary towards white prosperity, then this film would take on a completely different encompassing that would feel disturbingly icky and entirely self-indulgent, but Wang’s own experiences obviously plays a vital role in not only fleshing out the isolation factors that instantly breed empathy for Joan during the cruelest of circumstances against her white agitators, but also instinctively finds an alley of insight into the psychology of the character in ways that make it easy to understand her extremely devastating impulses, even when we know that a film like this is attempting to teach a lesson of self-love and pride for cultural heritage. For starters, I love that Wang takes her time alongside the childly rendering of Joan during the first few scenes of the opening act, as this allows the audience ample imprint mentally to never lose sight of the little girl casually persisting from within, even as Mckenna Grace dominates an overwhelming majority of the character’s portrayal. Likewise, Wang’s scathing discontent for disturbing societal norms sprawls beyond the characters involved in the conflict, and outwards towards the influential role that magazines, advertisements, and all forms of media play towards projecting an image to the improperly singular form of what these machines consider beautiful, implementing seeds of doubt in our protagonist that not only serve as the means to an end with her own internalized outpouring to be something that she isn’t and honestly never will be, but also opportunity to tap into the satirical side of societal scrubbing that keeps the atmosphere constantly digestible, despite some heftily uncomfortable conversations taking place, particularly between Joan and her parents. The comedy side of this creative hybrid is certainly far from perfect, but the parts of it that work pertains to some cleverness in set designs that offer blink-and-you-might-miss-it absurdities between business names, product branding, and even the name of the high school mascot that contextualizes what transpires within this high school long before we experience it first hand, and with some corresponding personality elicited in the soundtrack choices playing alongside character introductions and sudden plot developments of the many dynamics casually persisting around Joan’s life, Wang feels like a student of 90’s teen comedies that attached feelings of a moment instrumentally, attaining this energetically engaging atmosphere that makes the progression of the 97-minute runtime feel all the more effortless in its digestibility. Wang is given plenty of help in her corresponding ensemble, as Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace and even Vivian Wu and Fang Du give memorable turns as the trio of this established family, featuring so much exuberating personality and classiness in character that truly bring these characters to life with humbling heart and defined humanity. Chen’s innocence and wondrous ambition are transitioned comfortably into Grace’s tender vulnerability, with the latter’s insecurity speaking volumes about her own bodily conflicts eventually growing to fail her, and while both are downright remarkable at rendering teenage authenticity, it’s actually Wu and Du who steal the show from under Joan, enacting a warmth of affirming compassion and inescapable tragedy for their daughter’s selfish decision, all the while stitching this richly vibrant history of heritage in conversations that I honestly couldn’t get enough of.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, while Slanted does appraise meaningful representation in racist predicaments, it’s also a film that wants to have its cake and eat it too, with regards to incorporating so many unique personalities towards its presentation, which feels as evidentially tedious as quickly as the movie’s opening act. While the dramatic beats of the storytelling certainly transpire effectively in a film with some real grippingly urgent issues of its societal rendering, the try-hard emphasis of the comedy can really come across as inappropriate at times, resulting in this tonal whiplash from one scene to the next that feels like it eventually gets away from Wang, as she downright abandons humor during the movie’s second half. If the comedy wasn’t as abrasively enacted, featuring overbearing one-dimensional characters and focus-halting spontaneity to inspire a song about white pride or transformation, then it probably would’ve led to more consistent laughter in my interpretive experiences with its material, but unfortunately this is a script that initially attains laughter in the lowest hanging fruit, before plucking that branch bare in repetition, and the results definitely fare much better to the subtlety of the satire in the aforementioned production designs, rather than the intention to inject intrusive humor that constantly undercuts the meaningful magnitude of some pretty tender interactions between Joan, her family, and her only real friend, Brindha. In addition to this, my previous mentioning of The Substance certainly feels appropriate to the predictable outline of this exploration, as much of the story beats and developments have been repurposed to accommodate teenage depiction, and considering it takes very little chances with its surgical gimmick, it leads to some unavoidable predictability in the outline that I accurately traced every step of the way without even remote deviation. While it certainly attempts a curveball with a third act reveal that Wang utilizes as being ground-shaking, the reality is that I saw it coming from a mile away, as a result of this mysterious company being anything but ambiguous within this small town society, and considering this and the surgery itself not being everything that Joan expected it to be, it makes it easy to piece together where everything is headed in this tightly constricted and even occasionally restrained creative outline, offering nothing in the way of surprises to bring this movie’s impact to the same earth-shattering blow that took The Substance to a whole other level. Speaking of restraint, the bodily horror for the movie feels limited by a minimized budget, especially with the approval of a sought-after R-rating allowing ample opportunity for Wang and her production to express themselves gruesomely. While some people will give praises to the make-up designs weaving a sagging influence to Joan’s appearance, I found their evolution completely unimpressive in mirroring the magnitude of Grace’s agonizing performance, where what initially comes across as skin peeling from a sunburn, leads to nothing more than an ice cream cone melting on a hot Summer day. Beneficially, if you’re someone who was completely grossed out by The Substance, then this might be harmless enough to entertain without grossing you out, but for someone who absolutely adored the year’s and maybe decade’s best make-up and prosthetic designs in that film, I found that imitation here isn’t exactly the sincerest form of flattery, but rather unfulfilling in fleshing out the inescapable macabre of Joan’s irresponsible decision, a fact made all the more evident with the movie’s neat and tidy ending seemingly wiping away any kind of stakes for what transpires.

OVERALL
Slanted feels every bit a passion and personal project for Amy Wang, whose satirical spin on the delicately disastrous world of teenage popularity enacts an energetically engaging take on body dysphoria, even if she doesn’t completely stick the landing of her feature length directorial debut. While the film does stack foundational performances without a single blemish between its ensemble, the impropriety of the overbearing humor on sensitively sincere situations and underwhelming body horror stunt the sting of its unapologetic social commentary, leaving a superficially saturated and toothless twist on the importance of identity that feels cautious even when it’s cathartic

My Grade: 6.6 or C+