In Too-timid Asian American Assimilation Horror ‘slanted,’ Something’s Not Quite White

Fitting successful comes astatine a steep costs successful “Slanted,” a sci-fi-horror satire successful which a Chinese American teen makes a Faustian bargain seeking acceptance nan only measurement that manner magazines, her societal media algorithm and nan world astatine ample propose she can: by becoming white. Literally. Desperate to erase her Asian features, she takes nan bait erstwhile a shady cosmetic institution offers nan eventual makeover. The only catch? It’s irreversible. And you thought imperishable eyebrows were a commitment.

A fewer fleshy shreds of late-breaking gore yet follow, though writer-director Amy Wang’s SXSW-winning assimilation scary ne'er cuts arsenic profoundly arsenic it should. Still, in installments nan debuting characteristic filmmaker for venturing beautiful acold retired location pinch a risky conceit successful which 2 actresses, 1 Asian and nan different white, play nan aforesaid personification while convincing america that we’re watching 1 conflicted woman stuck successful 2 different bodies.

“Slanted” opens arsenic 8-year-old Joan Huang (Kristen Cui) moves from China to able suburban Georgia pinch her working-class parents Roger (Fang Du), a musician turned janitor, and her pragmatic mother Sofia (Vivian Wu). Scarred by nan racist rejections of her achromatic classmates connected nan first time of school, she’s awed by nan prom coronation she witnesses nan aforesaid night. Almost 10 years later and torn betwixt her Chineseness and her desire to beryllium embraced arsenic American, nan spunky Joan (Shirley Chen, a sardonic standout successful “Dìdi” and wonderfully susceptible here) would do thing to beryllium crowned prom queen, nan eventual emblem of popularity. When nan mysterious Ethnos Inc. sells her connected an “ethnic modification” room guaranteeing a happier, whiter life, Joan eagerly signs up for nan process that will switch her Asian personality and move her into, well, Mckenna Grace (“Regretting You”).

What precisely is Ethnos? Call it nan med spa from hellhole pinch a slayer targeted trading campaign. (Don’t interest astir really nan fictional subject works. The movie surely doesn’t.) Testimonials from satisfied patients boast of improved post-op occupation opportunities and emotion lives, nan thought being that erasing one’s title is simply a shortcut to equality — arsenic agelong arsenic nan default complexion is white.

“Slanted” begs comparison to nan personality horrors of “Get Out” and nan beauty-industry carnage of “The Substance” (with a hazy motion to nan prom segment successful “Carrie”), but it’s nan echoes of “Eternal Sunshine of nan Spotless Mind,” a stated influence, that springiness nan movie its “be observant what you wish for” poignancy. When Dr. Singer (R. Keith Harris) plies Joan pinch promises of alleviation from nan exhaustion of being non-white successful America (“If you can’t hit them, be them”), it’s a income transportation reminiscent of George S. Schuyler’s 1931 caller “Black No More,” astir a Black man who undergoes a technological process to move his tegument white.

Given nan slights Joan endures while cleaning a condescending achromatic woman’s location aliases nan measurement she clothespins her chemoreceptor thinner and mimics Western beauty tutorials each greeting earlier school, you wish you could guarantee her that comfortableness successful her ain tegument will travel successful a fewer years’ time. Her only existent cheerleader is her assured bestie Brindha (a sparkling Maitreyi Ramakrishnan successful a too-brief appearance), who offers a exemplary of what self-love and organization could look like.

But assimilation is some endurance and validation for Joan, who returns to schoolhouse arsenic “Jo Hunt,” now played by Grace. Cozying up to nan cool kids that ignored her arsenic an Asian woman but now connection her a spot astatine their “Mean Girls”-esque luncheon table, she ingratiates herself to Olivia (Amelie Zilber), nan queen-bee influencer she idolizes. Her prom dreams inch person arsenic her lies statesman to equine and her caller alabaster tegument starts peeling disconnected astatine highly inopportune moments.

The gambit of “Slanted” hinges connected nan assemblage accepting that Joan is still nan aforesaid personification erstwhile Chen hands her disconnected to Grace midway done nan film. Like John Travolta and Nicolas Cage successful “Face/Off,” nan actors tag squad nan lead domiciled seamlessly. Where Chen’s Joan runs connected a naive, frantic despair, Grace carries dense emotions and shame successful her eyes, creating an particularly loaded chemistry pinch Du and Wu, each 3 fantabulous (Grace besides delivers a information of her speech successful Mandarin).

Informed by Wang’s ain life increasing up Chinese Australian, “Slanted” nails nan micro-aggressions, assemblage dysmorphia and desire to beryllium that tin make coming of property while being “other” its ain perplexing benignant of hell, giving a sound to third-culture kids everyplace pinch gut-churning specificity. (For much connected nan subject, perceive to nan “Asian Enough” podcast I co-hosted for nan L.A. Times.) But immigrant-tale clichés of stinky lunchboxes and intergenerational disappointment tin consciousness rote and simplistic, and nan movie doesn’t probe arsenic profoundly into Jo’s regrets arsenic it does nan reasons she sought a caller look to statesman with.

Briefly, nan larger image of a heightened America comes into view, Wang envisioning Starbucks re-skinned arsenic “Freedom Beans,” Whole Foods arsenic “AR-15 Foods Market” and advertisements adorned pinch buxom blondes successful red, achromatic and bluish hawking burgers and beer. The concepts consciousness half-formed astatine best, disconnected from Joan/Jo’s story. We’re near pinch a nightmare of personality that feels slighter than it should, unsure of wherever to constituent its knife.