According To The variety If high school is a popularity contest — the mistaken-priorities assumption that drives writer-director Amy Wang’s SXSW-winning assimilation satire “Slanted” — then Chinese American senior Joan Huang (Shirley Chen) could be justified in ditching her heritage for a shot at being crowned prom queen. That’s the devil’s bargain Wang entertains in a provocative comedy-cum-thought-experiment that veers hard into “The Substance” territory when Joan agrees to a radical racial overhaul so thorough, Wang substitutes a different actor (Mckenna Grace) as her new persona for the rest of the movie.
Staring tricky identity issues in the face, “Slanted” draws from Wang’s upbringing as it identifies the social pressures that might drive Joan to go the Michael Jackson route. The pop star is never named, but is by far the most visible example of someone who resculpted himself according to prevailing beauty standards.
From the moment 8-year-old Joan arrives in the U.S. (played by Kristen Cui at that point), she’s confronted with signs of what the locals consider to be desirable: billboards with blond, bikini-clad models; Norman Rockwell-like propaganda art on the classroom walls; and a freckle-faced bully who makes fun of her eyes.
Flash-forward nine years, and Joan (now played by a grad school-aged actor) is bleaching her hair and doctoring her selfies with the Ethnos app (designed to make people of color look white). It feels edgy to call out such self-effacing, approval-chasing behavior at a time when appearance-altering practices are widespread, and potentially controversial to suggest that what Joan wants most is to be white.
When you think about it, that’s pretty much the opposite premise of the one Jordan Peele floated with “Get Out,” in which rich white folks who covet Black excellence implanted their brains in Black bodies. But Wang, who also wrote the upcoming “Crazy Rich Asians” sequel, lacks Peele’s gift for complexity. Her script for “Slanted” is very funny at times, but ultimately too safe as it ironically considers the question of whether being white is better — or easier, at least.
After learning that the most popular girl in her class, Olivia (Amelie Zilber), won’t be running for prom queen, Joan begins her makeover in earnest. But it’s not until Ethnos representatives reach out to offer Joan a path to making those “improvements” permanent that “Slanted” departs from your typical “Mean Girls” comedy. As the Ethnos pitch goes, “If you can’t beat ’em, be ’em.”
Before that, “Slanted” rehashes a lot of the usual stuff: frustration over not being part of the cool clique and futile attempts to fit in. In Joan’s case, it doesn’t help that her mom (Vivian Wu) packs odoriferous homemade meals, like chicken feet, for lunch — which Joan sells to her unconditionally loyal bestie Brindha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). Still, Joan’s dye job does seem to earn her points with Olivia, who invites her for mani-pedis at the Asian-owned nail salon, hoping that Joan (who speaks Mandarin at home) can get them the “locals” discount.
Such details, which likely wouldn’t have occurred to a white screenwriter, pack the punch of genuine, experience-based stand-up comedy — they’re relatable, whatever one’s upbringing, but also specific enough to resonate. The script’s big leap occurs the moment Joan exits the Ethnos procedure, looking like … well, Mckenna Grace. Wang could have gone the “White Chicks” route, using makeup to communicate (and potentially even parody) the transformation, Instead, the joke here is that she emerges a completely different person, pretending to be a new student named Jo Hunt.
It’s a risky gambit, and one that walks a tonal tightrope not unlike that of “Emilia Peréz” last year, as audiences wait to see what Wang plans to do with this development. Conveniently, there are no bandages and no recovery time needed. Joan steps out of the clinic, and her life is instantly different: Strangers smile and engage her on the street, and young men turn to check her out.
Funnier still is the scene when Joan comes home and her parents don’t recognize her. Back in the 1980s and ’90s, Hollywood was a regular factory for “be careful what you wish for” farces, from “Something Special” to “Big” to countless body-swap movies. Cringey as those movies can be to watch, the genre remains uniquely suited to exploring prejudice and other identity issues.
The problem with “Slanted” is that the downside of the irreversible procedure has nothing to do with learning that self-acceptance is more important than the affirmation of one’s peers. Rather, there’s a nasty side effect, whereby her new pretty face starts to peel and eventually collapse altogether — which amounts to a condemnation of plastic surgery more than the identity-scrubbing she goes through.
Racism isn’t the only factor making the cultural adjustment difficult for Joan, though Wang’s no-offense approach downplays aspects such as class and gender. Still, it’s worth noting that Joan’s father (Fang Du) works as a janitor at Clarksville High School, in addition to cleaning houses for members of the community — sources of potential shame for someone who feels poor by comparison with her fellow students. No wonder Jo’s big popularity-building coup post-surgery is claiming an acquaintance’s mansion as her own and hosting a big party there.
Grace has the most challenging role here, which is to let audiences see the insecure soul peering out from within this new body. As the movie builds to its big prom finale, Wang springs a few clever surprises en route to a fairly predictable, if far from pat ending. Reductive as the outcome may be, the writer-director remains undeniably daring, spinning comedy from an inferiority complex and coming out on top.
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