SXSW 2025: “Slanted” Review
One of the hallmarks of the universal high school experience is not fitting in with the popular crowd. Even those who existed at the pinnacle of the high school food chain have that lingering doubt in their minds that all of their coolness could be gone in the snap of a finger. The true indication of popularity is being elected Prom King or Queen. The quest for this title is at the center of Amy Wang’s Slanted. The film premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival, where it won the Narrative Jury Award. Slanted can be described as a bizarre blend of Mean Girls and The Substance, but Slanted is a different beast altogether, a thoroughly modern skewering of the American Dream through a body horror lens.
Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), a Chinese-American high school student, dreams of being elected Prom Queen. Like so many others her age, the title means much more than a plastic crown. It’s acceptance on a large scale, proof of assimilation to the hegemonic idea of American beauty standards. All Joan can see are the ways she’s different from the pretty, blonde popular girls in school. This leads her down the path of an experimental racial transformation to become White. Joan now becomes known as Jo Hunt (McKenna Grace) and believes the Prom Queen title is within her grasp, but there’s more to the surgery than she realizes.
Slanted takes place in the United States, but a more heightened reality of the country. The film opens with a montage of recognizable storefronts that have been twisted to an extreme. We see the exterior of a Whole Foods, but now it’s an AR-15 market. Even the medical company, Ethno Sync, where Joan undergoes her surgery feels like an Apple Store version of a hospital. Slanted is our world, but exaggerated, and subtlety isn’t working anymore. These feelings of teenage insecurity aren’t new, nor is the internalized and external weight of racism, but we are reaching a boiling point that cannot be ignored. Slanted begins stylistically as an indie film, more of a thoughtful, nuanced critique of classism, beauty expectations, and teenage loneliness. It then devolves into an extreme, in-your-face reflection on the lengths someone will go to feel a part of something. Slanted doesn’t turn into the all-out gorefest The Substance does, but it strikes a similar end note that lingers long after the credits roll.
courtesy of SXSW
At every turn, Joan tries to hide from her Chinese heritage. When her parents (Fang Du & Vivian Wu) speak to her in Mandarin, Joan replies in English. When her parents use chopsticks for meals, Joan uses a fork. Joan believes she has to be Chinese or American. There is no in-between. One of Slanted’s most poignant moments is a conversation between Joan and her father after Joan has already undergone the experimental surgery. He explains that when he first came to the United States, he also struggled with his new identity. What does it mean to be an American? Joan’s dad tells her that he had to become his own definition of an American and that will look differently for everyone, but what remains is that Joan doesn’t need to hide a part of herself to become an American.
Slanted is a new type of teen movie. It has all the trappings of an early-aughts flick, with bits of comedy shining through its unwavering and unyielding critique of our world today. The dual performances of Chen and Grace as Joan/Jo create a fascinating dichotomy while showing the inherent self-criticism that goes along with being a teenager. Slanted is the escalation of insecurities to a point of no return, unless you’re willing to take matters into your own hands.
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