Against all odds, the standout film of 2024 was The Substance. While the body horror film was stacked with beloved actors, old and new, the type of film wasn’t one that typically wins at the box office. Demi Moore stars as an aging starlet who takes a supposed miracle drug that allows her to get her career back. What it really did was allow her to live seven days as herself and seven days as a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley. The culminating events were not necessarily ideal, hence the pointed social commentary about how women in Hollywood are vilified when they start to age.
The Substance was commended for its socially aware messaging, but it only took the idea so far. Prime Video has released a new body horror film that targets another relevant topic. Amy Wang directed the film Slanted, which takes commentary about race to a whole new level. The story follows a Chinese-American student, Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), who feels ostracized in a white-dominant culture. Desperate to become prom queen, Joan elects to undergo a procedure that would turn her white. At first, she is ecstatic that she is finally being treated with equality, but her happy reality soon unravels into a nightmare of her own making.
‘Slanted’ Is the Best Parts of ‘The Substance’ and ‘Get Out’
Joan, played by actor Shirley Chen, sits in her room looking at her phone with a clothes pin on her nose in Slanted.
Just as Jordan Peele’s Get Out explores a specific experience of race in America, so too does Slanted. Even worse, it’s set in high school. High school experiences are the most excruciating of all, as teenagers have to contend with becoming who they are as people while also enduring senseless ridicule. Joan’s struggle to fit in is made all the more difficult in her predominantly white school.
Even her hope to win Prom Queen is defined by her race, as the popular white girls at school only use her for what she can give them. This heartache is artfully juxtaposed with Joan’s mother desperately trying to show her their Chinese heritage. Despite the love she is shown at home, the idea of a trans-racial surgery is too tempting to turn away.
The creators of the company — which is pointedly named Ethnos — were not always white and developed the technology because of how fatigued they were from getting passed over for opportunities because of how they looked. This specific pain that underlies the film demonstrates why Joan would make her ultimate choice. Slanted excels because it doesn’t walk back any of the trauma that Joan and her family experience. Time and time again, the doctor reminds Joan that the procedure is permanent and there is no going back. The narrative is more tragic than horrific, which is what makes it such a standout.
When Joan turns into her alter ego, played by Mckenna Grace, it is legitimately heartbreaking — as is the realization that the doctor wasn’t lying. There is no reclaiming Joan’s culture or heritage when she realizes how wrong she was. Slanted satirizes its subject matter, making this turn of events all the more brutal. Literally erasing one’s identity is done so casually in the story that it is all the more devastating when there is no answer. While The Substance may be more visually grueling to watch, Slanted toes that line well, making the social commentary at its center more serious and therefore, more disturbing when the film reaches its tragic end.
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