As a guy who grew up with the misguided 1986 comedy Soul Man, in which C. Thomas Howell is a white college student who turns himself Black to get a scholarship, movies in which people change their race are approached with extreme skepticism. Amy Wang’s SXSW award winner Slanted is far more thoughtful than the previously mentioned comedy relic, and finds genuinely human moments in its exploration of race, the immigrant experience, and the impact of social media on a Chinese teen who literally becomes a white girl. It’s a compelling premise, with some intriguing body horror elements, although the film is never as biting in its critiques as it could be.
Shirley Chen plays Joan Huang, a Chinese teen living in a lily white suburb where all of the girls are blonde and blue-eyed, and all of the guys look like Tom Brady clones. Joan was a child when she arrived fresh off the boat with her hard-working parents (Fang Du and Vivian Wu), and ever since she was mocked by the other students for her slanted eyes and Asian lunch, she has known that being white was the only way to survive. When the Mean Girls-esque popular girl drops out of the race for prom queen, Joan, and her best friend Brindha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, terrific in a too-small role), think this is the chance to shake up the status quo. Joan has wanted to be prom queen since stumbling into the dance as a child, while her father mopped the high school floors just feet away.
Slanted brilliantly sets up the world that is constantly shaping Joan’s perception of herself. The school walls are lined up with previous prom queens and kings, staring down at her as if judging from on high. The walls of Joan’s room are covered with pictures of white celebrities, setting a high beauty standard for her to achieve. Joan is also heavily impacted by social media, where she uses a filter program called Ethnos to change how she looks. She even wears a clothespin on her nose to alter her Asian features. It should go without saying that Joan is very low on the social pecking order, with Brindha basically her only friend.
Wang hits her stride when Ethnos starts taking a larger role. The shady, experimental company reminds of the memory-wiping Lacuna from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with a procedure just as devastating and permanent. Luring Joan into the office with the promise of a perfect blonde dye job, the Ethnos frontman, Willie (R. Keith Harris) waxes poetic about a procedure he underwent that transformed him from a Black man into a white man. He fills Joan’s head with all of the positives: no more fear, an equal shot in the world, no more racism, etc. Because if everyone just became white, there would be no more racism, right? His disturbing testimonials remind of the 1931 dark satire Black No More, in which a Black man undergoes a similar transformation.
Joan has the surgery without her parents’ approval, transforming herself into blonde-haired Jo Hunt. Her model good looks immediately catch the attention of her high school crush, as well as the popular girls in school. But they also devastate her parents. The film’s most gut-wrenching scenes involve Joan trying to explain why she took such a radical step, while her family is destroyed, humiliated, and ashamed all at once.
Unfortunately, it’s also this portion of Slanted that is the weakest overall, far from the world-building of the first act and the body horror aspects of the finale. The humor barely reaches above typical high school comedy levels, with Joan/Jo befriending the popular girls who dismissed her previously, dating the cute guy, and publicly shunning Brindha, one of the few remaining girls of color at school. Wang could’ve probed much deeper to explore Jo’s assimilation into white culture, all part of her obsession to attain a title that is ultimately meaningless.
Slanted regains its footing as Jo/Joan begins to suffer from horrific side effects from the procedure, with her face sagging and melting away like she was Clayface. Joan has to peel the skin away to maintain her good looks, but when even that isn’t enough, she becomes overcome with the true ramifications of what she’s done. Comparison’s to Coralie Fargeat’s tremendous The Substance are warranted, especially in the social commentary about women and beauty standards, but Wang doesn’t push the envelope very far. It’s a very sanitized take when something edgier is warranted given the material. While it may get Slanted a lot more mainstream coverage, a stronger movie was left dropped on the floor like Joan’s stripped away epidermis.
Slanted opens in theaters on March 13th from Bleecker Street.
