43° TFF - Slanted by Amy Wang (USA, 2025)

43° Torino Film Festival

Feature Film Competition

running time: 102'

review by Clara Bruno, 28 November 2025

four-minute read

film screened at TFF – Cinema Massimo 2

on 28 November 2025

“Slanted” means sloping, crooked, tilted. In the United States, the term has often been used as a racist slur towards immigrants of Asian origin, referring to the “slant” of their eyes.

Chinese-Australian and raised in Sydney, the young director Amy Wang is regarded as an emerging voice on the international scene, widely praised and award-winning. Slanted is the film that earned her the top prize at SXSW – South by Southwest, a big festival, held every year in Austin, Texas.

With this work, Wang crafts a provocative satirical comedy that, in various ways, recalls the imagery and anxieties of The Substance by Coralie Fargeat (2024).

The protagonist is Joan Huang, a Chinese-American high-school student played by Shirley Chen, convinced that she must renounce her cultural heritage in order to have a chance at being crowned prom queen. The “fabulous” Prom – the Promenade Dance – is indeed a rite of passage onto which generations of students have projected hopes, expectations, and an emblematic vision of their future and success.

Having arrived in the United States at the age of five, Joan has never felt assimilated. On the contrary, the racism ingrained in North American society has often hurt and humiliated her. Thus, in a sort of “pact with the devil”, she decides to undergo cosmetic surgery that will transform her into a “white girl”: blonde, fair-skinned, matching the stereotype immediately favoured in the school environment.

The metamorphosis is so radical that, from that moment on, the director replaces the actress: instead of Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace appears on screen.

The film is well-made and effectively portrays all the stereotypes of the teen genre, yet it concludes with an authentic message that goes beyond the simple: “Girls, avoid cosmetic surgery!”. The invitation is deeper: “Girls, embrace your natural beauty and your culture, because that’s what makes you special”.

Shirley Chen in the role of the Chinese-American student. The actress has said that the story told in this film strongly echoes her own personal experience.

The protagonist walks through the gallery of past “prom queens”, a series of white, blonde girls, a model of apparent “perfection” she feels she cannot even aspire to.