Slanted | SXSW 2025 Film Review

These days, it seems we cannot go a day without some rando on social media proclaiming the death of original film by way of franchise or reboot fatigue. It is a generic and untrue sentiment, there are countless ingenious and intellectually challenging original films released every year, you just have to find them. Take Slanted, for instance. An entire film that revolves around the concept of a teenage Chinese girl undergoing an experimental surgery to become a textbook blonde. How is that anything but unique?

Slanted is a bold choice in storytelling. The plot on its own may trigger some, as it revolves around Joan (Shirley Chen), a Chinese-American from a family of immigrants, who longs to be nothing more than prom queen. Joan has loving, devoted parents (Fang Du and Vivian Wu) who want their daughter raised with elements of their homeland, while Joan’s vision is captivated by the billboards of cheap beer and Americana featuring blond hair, blue-eyed starlets  Frustrated by her own culture and her borderline obsession with appearance and acceptance, Joan undergoes a wildly extreme racial transformation surgery that modifies Joan into a white, blonde, blue-eyed girl (McKenna Grace). In Joan’s eyes, a prime candidate for prom queen. Joan becomes Jo, friendships change, dreams come true, and the inability to reverse the procedure rears its ugly head.

Written and directed by Amy Wang, Slanted is infused from the early goings with care and humanity, complimented exponentially by the charm of our pair of Joans in Chen and Grace. Shirley Chen’s Joan is a sweetly insecure young woman who is tired of being overlooked or – worse yet – focused on because she appears different. As she becomes Jo, McKenna Grace takes on the unenviable task in today’s social climate of portraying the whitest version of Joan, while also dealing with the aftermath of her traditional parents. Both actresses combine for a truly interesting character dynamic that works against all reason and logic.

Amy Wang is hitting on several complicated topics – race, culture, white privilege, the immigrant experience, teenage angst – and the film carries a healthy combination of comedy and dramatic undertones. A hint of Mean Girls here, a tinge of Minari there, Slanted covers a lot of ground. The concept might appear farfetched, but in this day-and-age of social media attention seeking, it’s also not too far off. We have witnessed examples of others in public life attempting to alter their appearances to blend with other races, so maybe this is more grounded than it might initially seem.

Overall, Slanted is impactful and timely, it’s The Substance of the cultural divide. It left me pontificating on its meaning and the resonance of its message. In a world obsessed with polarizing debate, what is often missing is nuanced discussion. Slanted is one helluva conversation piece.