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‘Slanted’ Review: Extreme Makeover Satire Critiques Lopsided Beauty Standards Through Asian Eyes
An immigrant high school student hastily tries an experimental race-changing procedure that allows her to experience life as a white girl in the high-concept comedy that won SXSW.
If high school is a popularity contest — the mistaken-priorities assumption that drives writer-director Amy Wang ’s SXSW-winning assimilation satire “ Slanted ” — then Chinese American senior Joan Huang (Shirley Chen) could be justified in ditching her heritage for a shot at being crowned prom queen. From the moment 8-year-old Joan arrives in the U.S. (played by Kristen Cui at that point), she’s confronted with signs of what the locals consider to be desirable: billboards with blond, bikini-clad models; Norman Rockwell-like propaganda art on the classroom walls; and a freckle-faced bully who makes fun of her eyes. Still, it’s worth noting that Joan’s father (Fang Du) works as a janitor at Clarksville High School, in addition to cleaning houses for members of the community — sources of potential shame for someone who feels poor by comparison with her fellow students.
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