If The Substance explored ageism through the transformation of the body, a film featured in the line-up of the 43rd edition of the Torino Film Festival uses the same means to discuss white ethnocentrism.
Slanted follows Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), a Chinese-American teen, who moved with her family from China to the star-spangled country when she was a child and essentially grew up as an American. However, the South of the country in the 2010s does not turn out to be inclusive for someone of Asian decent like her. Bulling has been her all-time companion throughout her school days, until she seems to find a way out. Ethnos Inc. appears as the miracle-maker that can make Joan’s dream come true, achieving her “white” ideal (epitomised by Mckenna Grace’s performance). But it will come at a cost.
This film marks Amy Wang’s feature debut and as a Chinese-American she knows the topics she is handling and shapes them into an ingenious satire on assimilation using the genre of body horror. Multiculturalism is put in question through Joan’s classmates, whether they are the ones representing the Mean Girls society, lead by Olivia Hammond (Amelie Zilber), or the ones who champion individuality in a multiethnic context such as Brindha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan).
Also Vivian Wu (who plays Joan’s mother), and Fang Du (who plays the father), are determining in exposing the discrimination towards Asian immigrants in the USA. They also counterbalance their daughter’s conflicted quest to find her place in the sun. Her parents proudly continue with their Chinese traditions in their adopted nation, whereas Joan struggles to fully embrace her Asian roots, whilst dealing with an inferiority complex towards the Barbie-type American girl she dreams to become.
Carrie paved the way of the horror genre to portray how the outsider-ugly-duckling aspires to the title of Prom Queen. Amy Wang takes this a step further by imbuing influences from films such as Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli and Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley. The American-Chinese director, while penning the script was also reading the 1931 satire, Black No More, where writer George Schuyler imagined a world where Black people would undergo an experimental surgery to become white.
Amy Wang, as a Chinese-Australian filmmaker who grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, experienced firsthand the social isolation and the human condition she confronted as an Asian immigrant in a white-centric environment. Her unique perspective lead Slanted to win the grand jury prize in the narrative competition section of the 2025 SXSW Film and TV festival.
Ed Wu’s cinematography provides a sense of realism and wonder at the same time, enhancing the performance of the entire cast. The composer Shirley Song, conveys the proper atmosphere to the narrative, alternating the comedic and dramatic tones, to mock and provide reflection on the way internalised bias may nurture cultural erasure.
Wang rides the wave of films exploring self-acceptance through bodily transformations, just like the film Emilia Perez did, by focusing on gender reassignment to portray how identity can be reshaped from the inside out. In Slanted, race is placed under the microscope of the WASP conservative prototype, as the protagonist struggles for self-worth.
Final Grade: B
Photos Courtesy of the Torino Film Festival