When The Substance came out it was all that alot of horror fans could talk about and while this reviewer missed that movie. There was denying the fact that it is a loved movie therefor when a movie with a shockingly similar premise came out you can bet that I was going to be right one that and check the film the very first chance that I got well i've seen the film and wow is it truly something and so then join me I review the film that is Mean Girls meets The Substance without the charm of both of them with the film in question being called simply just "Slanted" enjoy.
The plot of this film is Chinese-American teenager Joan Huang gets surgery to turn her skin white and change her voice in order to be popular. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the films plot quite literally being a mixture of the plots of both The Substance and Mean Girls with this robbing the film of the chance to be it's own thing as no matter how good that this films plot could get at times it's always going to be compared to both of those films yet when the film does decide to do something that's unique to this film like the fact that they have surgery be this permanent thing akin to getting a tattoo for example that's when the plot gets to be interesting as then the film could have taken the chance to explore how Joan's rash decision effects not only herself but those around her. Yet the film doesn't do that as we barely get any scenes with her parents where they discuss how her choice affected them when that is something that would have been far more interesting then giving us a plot that just rips off a twenty two year old film as teenagers do be default make this dumb choices therefore it would have been interesting to see how those closest to Joan are affected by her choice with that being something that would have made the plot of the film be all that more interesting. The film itself doesn't even focused on that aspect of it's plot for all that long with it only being something that the film would occasionally cut back to with the film being more focused on letting us know if Joan will become prom queen when it should have been focusing on it's main plot alot more with the plot of this film really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging either as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Shirley Chen as Joan Huang , Mckenna Grace as Jo Hunt and Amelie Zilber as Olivia Hammond. Also starring in this film is Vivian Wu as Sofia Huang , Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Brindha , Fang Du as Roger Huang , Nicholas Myers as Nash , R. Keith Harris as Willie Singer , Kristen Cui as Young Joan , Sarah Kopkin as Greta , Callie McClincy as Cat , Elaine Hendrix as Harmony , Jonathan D. Williams as Hank , Katy Wilson as Nancy , David Alexander as The Clarksville HS Vice Principal , Eric Lang as Dexter , Elizabeth Pan as Penny , Megan Hayes as Mrs. Pine , Sandra Lee-Oian Thomas as Mrs. Valentine and Destiny Danielle as Lola.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films acting being about as bad as you'd expect it would be as it's clear as day that none of this films actors have any idea of what it is there doing this is despite the fact that alot of them are really good actors and have been good in other film some as recently as this past month but even good actors still need good direction and it's clear that this film writer and director Amy Wang who is making her directorial debut with this film had no idea of how to direct her actors with this resulting in them coming across as being lost and unsure of what kind of performance to give when it's director should have been there to steer there performances in the right direction. With the best actor in this film being Mckenna Grace as she essentially has to play two different roles at the same time as she is both Joan and Jo with her having to copy what the great Shirley Chen did with Joan but make it different enough when she becomes Jo that it becomes more clear that these are essentially two completely different people which is something that must have been pretty hard to do and yet she does pull it off really well with the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this film actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which s something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Character wise this film doesn't fair all that much better either as to put it bluntly there's nothing to these characters. As none of the films characters have anything about them that makes them interesting with them all not even feeling like characters that you'd expect to see in the first draft of a script as even those types of characters still have promise rather these are the characters that you think up before putting pen to paper. With all of the films characters being blank slates that the audience can then imagine is them which is something that would be fin if any of the films characters are even the slightest bit likable however none of them have any redeeming qualities as they all do things that make them unlikable characters and yet none of them display anything that would make them likable the same thing is even true for the films main character Joan who spends a good portion of the early part of the wanting to be popular but having absolutely zero personality and and even after she gets the procedure she then spends the rest of the film acting like the typical popular high school b*tch with her snapping at anyone who will put up with her this is something that wouldn't be a bad thing where it not for the fact that the film already has a character that fills in that role in Olivia who is a social media star and apparently has a TV show yet she can also go to school full time with none of those things being the slightest bit doable. With it therefore making it pointless to make Joan be the high school b*tch as not only did Mean Girls do that idea better they knew to make the main character likable before she turns into the villain where as here none of that happens therefore we can't feel anything for Joan because of the fact that the makers of this film haven't given us a reason to care about her character in the first place.
As was mentioned earlier on in this review film is basically just a redo of The Substance only it's now sprinkled in with elements of Mean Girls. Which makes it pointless as if you wanted to watch a film that's like he Substance then you could actually watch The Substance and not this lazy knock off and if you wanted to watch Mean Girls then you could actually watch the 2004 original Mean Girls as both of those films are better then this film as both of those films know to be good films first and everything else second and yet with this film it's clear as day that while the makers of this film were inspired by those films which is fair enough as while I can make no comment about The Substance I can say the original Mean Girls is a really good film it's clear as day that Amy Wang who wrote and directed this film had no idea about what it was that made both of those films work in the first place and therefore she just did what she thought made them work without actually bothering to watch either or both of those films in the first place as on paper a film like this one could have worked but it needed a writer and director who understood what it was that made the other two films work so well to make them work together in this film as then we could have gotten something that was truly special. Yet for one reason or another the makers of this film instead chose to do everything in half measures with this being something that does result in everything in this film feeling underbaked and like it was something that you'd expect a first draft to look like whereas if the makers of this film rewrote and reworked the script a few times to make this film as good as it could have been then we could have gotten something truly special.
Even tho this film has only just come out it's fair to say that this film is going to be massive flop for Bleecker Street and Fox Entertainment Studios. As this film is currently in NINETEENTH place at the box office and hasn't even made a million dollars baring in mind that this film came about four or five days ago and has some star power in it's actors with the film falling way behind the re-release of Kiki's Delivery Service and the re-release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze as well an Elvis concert film. The film even saw a massive drop of in it's second day with the film dropping a whopping -70% in earnings on Saturday and a further -29.3% on Sunday. This something that was pretty much all but always going to happen as typically horror comedies don't usually do that well at the box office and with this film focusing more on and then dropping it's comedy aspect all together it all but meant that this film was going to be a flop which is a shame as this is a film that if it was in the right hands could have been really good as the film does have a solid enough idea and good enough actors actors to pull it off an yet for one reason or another none of it came together hopefully Amy Wang will learn from this and take the lessons that she's hopefully learned on this film and apply them to her next film as this film is well directed i'm not going to deny that but the mish mash of tones doesn't help amongst with alot more things which due to how political that this review could come very quickly if there mentioned will not be getting covered in this review as even tho no one is going to see this film this review is something will always remain politics free.
There are maybe at a stretch two genuinely good things in this film the first of which is the make up effects by an unknown effects company. With the make up making Mckenna Grace's face look like it's sliding of her face in really gruesome ways which was something that was nice to see and even the film does put alot more focus on being a comedy that it does being a horror film when it does focus on being a good horror film that's when we get to see the potential of just how good that this film could have been due to the fact that it does feel like that this film was originally meant to be a horror at first but then was changed to be more of a horror comedy. Which isn't a bad thing as films like Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark and Shawn Of The Dead have proven that the two can be mixed together really well however there needs to be a fine balance between the two and when your horror film relies so much on tension you can't then have the characters make a joke as all that does is then break the tension thus forcing you to start over again. The make up in this film is something that does work really well with the films horror aspect as it does show us the audience just what the price is of getting this surgery done whilst also showing Jo that she will always be the one thing that she's trying to hide from being that being a Chinese-American with the films dropping make up leading to a really good scare at the end of the film which is something that will be discussed in this review but even the films good make up can't make up for how bad the rest of the film is as this is a film that does struggle with knowing what it is that it wants to be.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty eight minuets and ten seconds. Which again to be fair to this film isn't a bad running time for this film to have as the film very easily could have done really well with that running time yet due to the fact that this film is a painfully slow burner it does mean that this film should have been a little bit longer as the film does have more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time yet due to the fact that the film does take it's time in getting going by the time it does get going and it gets to the stuff that we actually want to see the film is almost over. The film also doesn't use it's running time all that wisely due to the fact that the film doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot with this being due to the fact that the film is not only more interested in being a bad knock off of better films then it in being a good film in it's own right and yet if the film did take the time to give us a more well thought out plot then the film could have been really good with the same thing also effecting the films lack of character development as all of this films characters are te exact same when they end the film as they were when we started the film with the only one to somewhat grow as a character being Joan and even then it's debatable on if she grows as a character and if the film was a little bit longer even if its just by five or ten minuets and then that's screen time that would have been used in either giving this horror film some more actual horror or by giving both it plot and characters the much needed development that they need as you really can't afford to be a slow burner when you film is this short but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a horror film that really does mean that I have t actually talk about the actual horror that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual horror that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this film having more of focus on being a comedy then it does in being a horror film which wouldn't be a bad thing where it not for the fact that the film drops its comedy aspect near the end of the film by which point it's far to late for the film to even try to build up tension as the film would have failed at being a horror film due to the fact that there's nothing all that scary in the film. With the best and only scary scene in the whole entire film being when Jo rips at her face peeling of huge chunks of her skin with her bleeding in some places just to reveal one of her old Asian eyes which is a good scene as it does show us just how much of mistake that Joan has made and how far that she's willing to go to correct it the issue is however is that not only is that the only scary scene in the whole entire film but it also happens right at the end of the film when it would have been all the more better if we got to see some of Jo's face literally falling of her during other scenes in the film as that would have given us some idea that something is not going right with the surgery and that Joan has done something that she will regret if it's not corrected and yet as this is a slow burner film that wants to be more of comedy then a horror film that does mean that we end up with a horror film that only really has really one creepy scene in it albeit one that's done really well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it doesn't really need to be said but this film is pretty bad and is one that already is and should be avoided as while it is nice to have new voices in the world of horror those voices still need to be saying something good , new and original and sadly that's not what this film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 4.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review ell then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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