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Slanted at Sydney Film Festival – review

June 12, 2025

Addy Fong checks out Slanted at Sydney Film Festival:

Growing up, I’ve always wanted to be hot and accepted, and the only way to do this apparently is to be white, well at least, that’s what I’ve been told. Amy Wang’s Slanted, a multi-genre film that is both coming of age, teen comedy, and body horror, is a film laced with elements of drama and seasoned with the tenderness of the migrant story, particularly that of the American-Chinese diaspora. Slanted explores the idea of cultural assimilation, the idea that for many Asians living in Anglo-dominant countries we need to change who we are, we need to make ourselves white or white passing in order to fit in. Growing up, I’ve told myself this time again and thankfully these days this makes me want to vomit, I’m thankful as I’ve gotten older and perhaps wiser, I’ve grown to be slightly more comfortable in my own skin, but the struggle continues – identity and belonging is complicated, feelings and desire to fit in is universal for many people of colour.

Wang, an Australian filmmaker based now in America, grew up in Sydney’s Inner West, having attended a high school in Hornsby and studied film at UTS. She wrote/directed/produced Slanted a film inspired by her own personal experiences as a Chinese Australian growing up in the Pauline Hanson White Australia era of the late 90s and early 2000s as well as the racism faced by Asians shot in a nail-saloon in Atlanta in 2021. As people of color we often forget our otherness, the racism we have felt growing up, but Slanted despite its cliched tropes, the film is set in high school, brings the pain of this back, a pain so many of us know all too well.

Premiering at SXSW in Austin Texas, Slanted screened at Sydney Film Festival, a festival Wang often frequented. Audience responses in a post film Q&A celebrated her story, one simple enough to understand, the pride and the shame of being othered, of not being white. Slanted speaks of displacement, being torn between two worlds and cultures, set in the cliche of the high school setting as this battle ground for social accceptance and desire to belong and ultimately to conform.

Slanted follows Chinese American high school student Joan Huang (Shirley Chen) whose dream of being Prom Queen is hindered due to her race, the solution? Obviously, it’s to become a white woman! Duh. The solution of racial transformation surgeries to become white evokes Face/Off (1997) vibes, cause clearly changing one’s identity is about access and ‘White Privilege’ in order to be accepted. Yay conformity! Joan’s white alter ego Jo Hunt (Mckenna Grace) plays the perfect white girl version of Joan, Wang telling audience members that the two leads observed each other on set during filming to pick up on each other’s mannerisms leading to a convincing body swap as seen in the film. Grace plays the white girl perfectly, she’s beautiful, she’s white, and in all honesty, she wasn’t too memorable but she felt familiar in other films I’ve seen.

What drew me to the film instead was the culural elements in the background, the familiarity of the Chinese American experience as portrayed on screen, the home-cooked meals, the chinese calendar on the wall, the cultural celebrations, the bringing of Chinese food to school and the social ridicule faced by many of us, perhaps reflective too of own my personal experience as a Chinese Australian Woman growing up in Sydney during a similar time as Amy Wang.

Having grown up with unhealthy ideals that blonde hair and blue eyes is beautiful and desireable and since I’m a sucker for white girl pop music, I must confess I enjoy Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, etc, because simply put, I’m basic. This said, ideas of beauty in pop-culture, the sexualised white female and dominant narrative pushed on so many of us on a systematic level is showcased in Wang’s film Slanted, culture and conformity almost ruins us from within. Like Joan growing up I’ve asked myself What does it mean to be hot? Do I need to be white? How do I conform to social expection? This now saddens me. That said, recently I’ve descovered the joy of cultural familarity and shared experience, the joy I felt watching Slanted came from the nostalgic rush of hearing Teresa Teng’s The Moon represents my Heart played on full blast during pivitol moments of the film, a clear certified karaoke bop. Fueled by nostalgia and my childhood upbringing, in an overwhelming rush of emotion I wanted to sing in the cinema, the power of Teng in uniting Asians together.

Wang includes easter eggs in the film, dressing the set casually to enhance the story. Two I picked up on in particular was one, Jo wearing a tank top with the word ‘delusional’ on it and the other a banana placed on a table in the corner of a scene. Growing up, I remember being introduced to the concept of being a Banana, ‘yellow’ or Asian on the outside and ‘white’ on the inside. Or as the film progresses and Joan becomes Jo, the concept of being an egg, ‘white’ on the outside, and ‘yellow’ on the inside. Simplifying culture and one’s identity based on appearance is one of the most toxic things to happen to us growing up, our worth dependent on how people percieve us. This makes me so uncomfortable because it’s a lie I feed myself all too often. The reality is that no one wants to be othered or excluded, because looking different is not cool.

Slanted is a story which speaks of assimilation, integration, and sacrificing one’s own happiness for social acceptance and conformity. The erasure of culture even if subtle is shown through comedic elements in the film, they highlight the toxic root of the issue, as a character remarks, ‘For a new plant to grow the seed has to die’ and this is for many Chinese Australians or Chinese Americans, something we are faced with as our roots are perhaps slowly removed. Many people of colour are told the lies of ‘how wonderful is it to be white’ or ‘my success was limited based on my appearance’ and ‘erasing colour [can help] to achieve equality’ It might seem overly dramatic, denial of culture and self is a lie we’re taught to believe in an anglo-dominant society. In our current climate where racism is rampant even if not obvious or direct this is utterly terrifying because this is happening.

Growing up, I’ve always wanted to be hot and accepted, desired even, and I’ve always believed perhaps that social conformity was the best way to seek validation from others on an external level because I like Joan Huang felt ‘unhappy for a long time’. It’s only within recent years the realisation of happiness, true happiness, comes from within and finding comfort with one’s self. Joan’s mum tells her ‘being Chinese is what makes us special’, it’s a statement that I used to cringe at growing up but I’ve realised now as I’ve gotten older happiness, acceptance, and perhaps even attractiion only comes through embracing all parts of who I am, a Chinese Australian.

Slanted plays at Sydney Film Festival on 13th and 15th June. For tickets and info go here.

Review by Addy Fong.