Slanted (2026) – Review and Summary

Slanted explores the horror of standing out and the desperation to fit in.

ByAmari Hours Posted on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Slanted” Film Details

  • Director(s): Amy Wang
  • Writer(s): Amy Wang
  • Distributor: Bleecker Street Media
  • Runtime: 1 Hour(s) and 44 Minutes
  • Public Release Date (In Theaters): March 13, 2026
  • Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Young Adult
  • Content Rating: Rated R
  • Primary Language: English | Non-English (Mandarin)
  • Images © of / Courtesy Of Bleecker Street Media

Movie Summary

Around 10 years ago, Joan’s parents, Roger and Sofia, immigrated from China and brought Joan to the type of town where their high school mascot is a “Wizard” who looks like a member of the KKK. As you can imagine, while there are other people of color, like Joan’s best friend Brindha, who also stand out, Joan never took well to being a minority.

Mind you, she doesn’t hate her parents or Chinese identity, but with lacking a community that looks like her, it makes her desire to experience a sense of belonging amplified. Thus, when given the opportunity to be accepted, uplifted, Joan takes an opportunity that may mean erasing her connection to her family to belong to her community.

Cast and Characters

Joan (Shirley Chen) and Jo (McKenna Grace)

  • Character Summary: For over 10 years, Joan has lived in America, and it has been a bit challenging. While she has a friend and is close to her family, she also recognizes how much she stands out. This

Roger (Fang Du)

  • Character Summary: Roger is a musician, but to make ends meet, he cleans homes for a living. He is also not only Joan’s father, but her favorite person.

Sofia (Vivian Wu)

  • Character Summary: Sofia is Joan’s mother, who is mainly portrayed as a housewife.

Brindha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan)

  • Character Summary: Brindha is Joan’s best friend, and while she finds Joan’s obsession with fitting in ridiculous, they’re cool.

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

What Identity Means Without Community [85/100]

One of the most interesting things presented in Slanted is that, despite Joan’s desire to have a closer proximity to her community’s Whiteness, she doesn’t hate or look down on Chinese culture or her parents. While she does encourage her parents to speak English a few times in the movie, it is because it would mean better opportunities for them. Though she sells the lunch her mom makes her to Brindha, she happily eats her mom’s food at home in a way that shows she appreciates how her mom cooks and what she does.

It creates this interesting juxtaposition. Too often, community and identity are intertwined, but Slanted divorces the two. Joan has Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and every notable White celebrity in the past five to ten years, who doesn’t tan and is general printer paper white on her wall. Yet, there isn’t a single Asian woman, Chinese or otherwise, on her wall.

Mind you, her parents didn’t push assimilation onto her at all. They still celebrate Lunar New Year, keep photos of grandparents, teach her Mandarin, and make her culturally aware with music and even videos of Chinese and Asian people. But, because the world outside their home is Middle America White, there is friction.

Watching Joan navigate being firmly Chinese, with good memories and her insecurities purely being rooted in her community’s rejection, brought a different angle to the conversation of being “Othered.”

The Perspective of Joan’s Parents [84/100]

Throughout Slanted, Joan does minor tweaks before ultimately performing the transformation featured in the film’s poster. It’s very clear why Joan does this, and it is heartbreaking. However, then there is the perspective of her parents.

The reason Sofia and Roger left China isn’t made 100% clear, so you’re left to the usual assumption that it was for “A better life.” But, one of the things that gets tapped into with this movie, similar to This Will Never Work, is how a better life usually means subjecting yourself, and your children, to a predominantly White area or institution. Thus making their only connection to their culture being through their parents, and sans a pocket community, it can be like parents are throwing their children to the wolves. All while assuming, since these wolves aren’t feral and eat well, their environment is better.

But what hit the most was, post Joan’s transformation, not only did we come to see that Sofia and Roger didn’t understand Joan’s plight, but how much they needed her, maybe as much as she needed them, to stay connected to China. Roger notes that it is through looking at Joan that he remained connected to his mother, since she shares some of her features.

Even when writing this, it gets me teary-eyed for it really presses you to remember how much you carry as a child of not only your parents’ hopes and dreams, but also their past, and who/what inspired these aspirations. Their parents’ personality traits, looks, are what make you feel like home to them, and are part of their way of thanking that person for all they’ve done.

So, beyond the anger of a grown man letting a minor completely transform her face, you can also see the heartbreak and rejection in Roger and Sofia’s eyes. So much about what they love about themselves, who they are, was removed. Sadly, this isn’t tapped into as deeply as some may want, but you can sometimes see signs that they realized how they pushed Joan to do something so drastic. Despite their good intentions.

On The Fence

Wishing They Did More With Brindha [76/100]

What further complicates Slanted not giving into the easy way it could tell its story is by having Joan’s best friend be the complete opposite of who she wants to be. Brindha’s name isn’t Americanized (Joan’s Chinese name is Qiqi). She is darker-skinned, openly wears her culture, doesn’t hold a feminine, Eurocentric aesthetic, and doesn’t place any notable value on what the local culture uplifts, like being a prom queen.

This makes you want to understand further how this dynamic came about. Roger and Sofia may share and pass down Chinese culture at home, but we don’t see any effort from either to seek out their culture outside the home, or even Asian cultures beyond those on the eastern side of the continent. So, what led to Joan and Brindha becoming friends, never mind lasting all the way through high school? Especially since Joan’s fascination and desire to close the gap to her proximity to Whiteness has been going on for years?

Note, there are girls who seemingly would have been Joan’s friend who are White. Which, again, exposes how complicated identity and community can be, and it makes me wish we got more out of Brindha so we could understand her bond with Joan better. For with special handshakes, but us never seeing Joan go to Brindha’s house, or vice versa, the only out we could see here is they are friends of convenience, and outside of school, they don’t hang out.

The Message & Ideas Are Stronger Than The Characters [75/100]

At times, Slanted feels like it was Amy Wang’s palatable way to get an idea out and get more eyes on it than an essay or book ever would. The writer and director presents us with something that makes the actors almost feel like a way to market the conversation Wang wants to get started in a way people may consume.

After all, while the horror genre is mostly known for blood, guts, and serial killers, it is also a means of calling out prejudice and its effects. Be it sexism, classism, racism, ageism, and many others, it amplifies what it means to be subjected to being treated as less than, often in an embellished way. With Slanted, at times, it can feel like, whether famous faces or not, each actor is the blood and guts that people usually come for, and the message is what Wang wants you to pay attention to and consume.

Note, this isn’t to imply Slanted wishes to trick you into watching something heavy and “Woe is me.” There are many comedic moments throughout the film. Also, I’d submit Slanted is the type of film that wants to invoke thought and then let people like me and others go deeper and start the conversation. But, in the process of doing so, it makes each character feel like Trojan Horses and unimportant when all is said and done. For they don’t represent people as much as they do ideas.

Overall

Our Rating (80/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)

The strength of Slanted comes in what it wants to portray, the ideas it wants you to think about, and it executes that well. However, the method of delivery can feel like it is meant simply as a means to get these ideas to a larger audience than wanting any particular actor to shine and embody a character, rather than be a medium for an idea.

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