Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley shocked and horrified us back in 2024 with the body-horror film The Substance, and there’s definitely a bit of that combined with Mean Girls coursing through the veins of one new project on the 2026 movie calendar. Slanted stars Shirley Chen as a self-conscious Chinese American teenager who goes to drastic lengths to gain popularity amongst her white peers. Critics have seen the body horror-comedy and are here to help us decide if we want to, too.
Slanted is the feature directorial debut of Amy Wang and sees its protagonist Joan Huang undergo an experimental surgery that effectively erases any traces of her Chinese ethnicity as she assumes a new body (Mckenna Grace). Luna Guthrie of Collider rates it an 8 out of 10, saying its largely Asian American crew gives the movie the authenticity to make some interesting points about the American teen experience through the lens of immigrant families. Guthrie continues:
