Film Review: SLANTED (2025): A Devastating and Intriguing Cautionary Tale of a High School Girl Desperately Trying to Fit In
Slanted Review
Slanted (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Amy Wang and starring Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace, Amelie Zilber, Vivian Wu, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Fang Du, Nicholas Myers, R. Keith Harris, Kristen Kui, Sarah Kopkin, Callie McClincy, Elaine Hendrix, Jonathan D. Williams, Katy Wilson, David Alexander, Eric Lang, Elizabeth Pan and Cecelia Specht.
Amy Wang’s Slanted has a powerful message buried underneath its horrifying images and disturbing story line. Wang presents a tale of how a young Chinese girl, Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), changes her race in order to fit in at her high school and the consequences she faces as a result of that transformation. This film has solid performances and holds the viewer’s attention from the first frame all the way until the last. If the ending feels more gloomy than it needed to be, it serves to drive home the film’s point of the importance of preserving individuality and culture. Slanted brings its messages into light in a gruesome, yet affecting, way.
As the film begins, Joan is trying to fit in by dyeing her hair to look like the other popular girls at her high school. There’s a clique headed by Olivia Hammond (Amelie Zilber), a classic blonde “mean girl” type whose entourage all eat the same exact thing that she does at the cafeteria table. Joan’s best friend, Brindha (well played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) is caring and trustworthy, but she may just be betrayed by Joan when an opportunity arises for Joan to become another person. Well, sort of.
Enter Willie Singer (R. Keith Harris), a man who shows Joan a surgery that could change her life forever. Joan could become white with this surgery which would potentially make her more popular in school. One condition, however: Joan needs to have a parent sign a permission slip in order to get the surgery. Joan lies to her caring mom, Sofia (Vivian Wu), and says she has to sign a permission slip for a “field trip.” Once Sofia signs, all hell is about to break loose. There’s a funny scene where Willie shows Joan the benefits of being white in a dream-like sequence that precedes the surgery. When Joan wakes up after the surgery, she is in a white body (and is a blonde now played by Mckenna Grace).
Joan’s parents don’t respond well to the new change that Joan has undergone and are quite angry as they threaten to even take away her phone at one point. It takes time for Joan to convince her parents that it’s really her in the new body she inhabits.
Things begin to improve at school as Grace’s “Jo” gets in with the popular clique and wins the respect of Olivia. Jo’s dad, Roger (Fang Du), works for a rich woman and Roger cleans the wealthy lady’s home, but when the lady goes away on vacation, Jo invites her new “friends” to the home which they predictably trash which threatens Roger’s job. The plot thickens as prom approaches and “Jo” wants to be prominent in the festivities, but her face starts taking on odd changes which threaten her outer appearance.
This film has several strong performances. Mckenna Grace is quite impressive as she embodies an Asian teen rather effectively. Grace captures Jo’s yearning for acceptance to perfection. As the “original” Joan, Shirley Chen is believable and shows the desperation her character has to be popular. Both the performers who play the parents, Vivian Wu and Fang Du, bring earnest sincerity to their roles that is certainly admirable. In supporting roles, Zilber and Harris are effective as well. Zilber ably plays Olivia, a young girl with a secret of her own while Harris expertly plays the salesman of the package to change one’s race. Harris will have you hating his character so much throughout the picture as Willie puts on a happy face as he basically destroys people’s lives on a regular basis. Of course, the film presents the case that some customers are actually happy changing the color of their skin which leaves a lot of debate and discussion for after the film’s conclusion.
Slanted is a powerful tale of trying to be something that you’re not and is deeply moving in its emotional concluding scenes where the family confronts the aftereffects of the disturbing choice Joan has made. While the director, Wang, takes a more realistic approach to some of the material than was expected, the horrific scenes of bodily terrors streamline the film and make it accessible to horror audiences as well as fans of intense dramatic stories. Mckenna Grace is constantly growing as an actress and her work in this film is much stronger than was expected, making Slanted a successful endeavor about the need to embrace individuality and reject conforming to the ideals that society pressures us to embrace.
Rating: 7/10
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