White privilege is a concept that many people don’t want to talk about since they think it inherently implies that there’s something wrong or unimpressive about being born with a certain skin color. But those who stop to contemplate it even just briefly will realize that, for those who are able to move throughout this world without being looked at or judged based on their appearance, it’s nearly impossible to relate to the opposite experience. Slanted pushes that idea further with a story of “ethnic modification” that enables one Asian teenager to consider what it might look like to have an entirely new life.

Joan Huang (Shirley Chen) is desperate to fit in. She sells the lunch her mother Sofia (Vivian Wu) makes for her to her best friend Brindha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and helps her handyman father Roger (Fang Du) out when he needs at work. But at school, she wants to be popular, and when the hottest girl at school, Olivia (Amelie Zilber), begins to notice her after she dyes her hair blond, she years for more. When she finds out about an opportunity to literally get a new face, she jumps at it, forging her parents’ signature so that she can become Jo Hunt (Mckenna Grace) and vie for the prize she’s always wanted: being crowned prom queen.

This is the kind of film that has the potential to be wildly offensive and off-putting. But in the hands of writer-director Amy Wang, making her feature debut after serving as a writer for shows like From Scratch and The Brothers Sun, it’s framed as a clear parody of reality that’s not played for laughs. That such a technology would exist which could allow someone to change the color of their skin and their appearance so radically that even their parents wouldn’t recognize them may be far-fetched scientifically, but the potential appeal of such a procedure could be sky-high. As this film explores, it doesn’t come without its unintended and irreversible, if still predictable, consequences.

Joan’s decision to go through with the surgery comes midway through the film, at which point Ethnos Inc, the company that offers this transformative process, is in full focus. The surgery itself is presented comedically, with lines like “I one day suffered the injustice of being a person of color in this world, “if you can’t beat them, be them,” and “if I was going to have equality, I’d have to create it for myself.” A promo video with singalong lyrics like “it’s good to be white” further underscores that tone, indicating the promised ecstasy that comes along with no longer having to feel like an other and instead just feeling, as she indicates, like an American, with no hyphen before it.

Despite the exaggerated nature of the marketing for this (at least currently) fictional offering, audiences should be smart enough to know that this won’t be a simple switch that will leave Joan, now known as Jo, feeling good about herself. That journey is a worthwhile one, especially as her parents indicate their anger and sadness about her unwillingness to embrace her heritage and instead to try to run from it and leave them behind. While that dramatic process of self-discovery doesn’t offer much unexpected insight, the film does leave a few story-related surprises for late in the film that add more depth to its premise.

Slanted assembles an impressive cast with talent all on the rise. Chen was recently seen as the title character’s older sister in Dìdi, while Wu, Ramakrishnan, and Grace have all done great television work in The Afterparty, Never Have I Ever, and The Handmaid’s Tale, respectively.  The entire ensemble works together to make sure that this high-concept film never gets too over-the-top, maintaining its effective status as a satire rather than a mockery or something with the potential to truly upset audiences. Since science – and human desire – surely isn’t that far away from concocting something like what’s seen in the film, it serves as a productive and insightful assessment of whether such an idea would actually be in any way beneficial.

Grade: B

Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer’s articles.

Slanted is this year’s Grand Jury prizewinner in the Narrative Feature Competition section at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.