Advantageous

source: Advantageous

I didn't know what I was getting myself into here, when I sat down to watch "Advantageous". But I had the chance to watch it, and since I am a movie fanatic, I did of course sit down to watch it. It is good to branch out and delve into new territory once in a while, you might just happen to come across gems you would otherwise have missed out on. I wish I had missed out on this one. Because I spent 35 minutes in utter despair and complete boredom. 35 minutes of my life wasted, unable of getting them back. "Advantageous" was unfathomably and incredibly slow paced, to the point where it felt like time actually stood still. And it didn't help the least that the movie was driven by an utterly pointless storyline. The one thing that the movie had working for it, in my opinion, was its cast. They had managed to get together a fairly good ensemble of actors and actresses for this movie. And I was especially impressed with Jacqueline Kim in the lead role, despite her being restricted and kept from flying by a horrible storyline. While I only endured 35 minutes of this movie, it felt like an eternity, and I am not returning to watch the rest of the movie. It just didn't have any appeal to me on any level.

Advantageous is the second feature by Jennifer Phang based on the screenwriter/director's award-winning short film of the same name. Set in an unspecified future, Advantageous' setting was described by one critic as a "feminist dystopia." The protagonist Gwen (played with great intensity by Jacqueline Kim) is a spokesperson for a biotech company, Center for Advanced Health and Living. When her superiors deem her too old to continue working in a job that demands a younger look, she's unceremoniously given the proverbial pink slip. The problem is that in the future not only are there virtually no jobs for older, middle-aged woman, but an economic recession has led men to be given preference in the marketplace (sound like someplace you know?) Gwen is faced with the crisis of not having enough funds to ensure that her teenage daughter, Jules (played by sensitive newcomer Samantha Kim) gets into an elite private school which will guarantee her upward mobility (the consequences of what happens to those who fail to move up in the world is hardly touched upon). Gwen is so desperate that she tries to hit up her estranged sister for money. That's a no go after the sister gets wind of a family secret involving her husband, with whom Kim had an affair with long ago. Of course that sounds more like melodrama--where the sci-fi comes in involves Kim contacting her ex-boss at the Center and agreeing to get involved in their untested soul transfer procedure. There's a Twilight Zone episode from long ago much like this: an "ordinary" woman is pressured into trading her body in for a new one with "model looks." Here, Gwen asks for the trade-in and ends up in the body of a much younger, supposedly more attractive woman, Gwen 2.0 (played by Freya Adams). There are few surprises after Gwen becomes Gwen 2.0. Jules rather predictably can hardly stomach her "new mother" until there's some measure of acceptance at film's end. The female companion I was with at the film screening found Jules' dissonance and eventual coming to terms with the new situation to be an emotionally cathartic experience. For me the turn of events (that truly smacked of melodrama) suggested a lack of imagination. Advantageous' central conceit, basically a body swap, has been used in countless other sci-fi potboilers. This might have been better as a one -hour episode in a Twilight Zone-like series. But here, the pacing is so slow, that only an extremely clever twist ending could have saved the floundering narrative. Given its low budget, Ms. Phang did well with the limited resources she had to work with. Utilizing CGI effects, drone-like saucers are seen flying across a future urban landscape. Holograms are also made use of to suggest the future dystopia. The bulk of Advantageous was filmed in Brooklyn—thus, along with the special effects, one feels firmly ensconced in both the present day and a fanciful future-scape. Most of Advantageous' drama revolves around the bonding between mother and daughter. Social issues are reduced to mysterious bombings in high-rises that are never truly explained. And the world Gwen inhabits is basically limited to immediate family and her employers. We really never do get a sense of what the world is like in the future beyond Gwen's narrow universe. Advantageous' strong suit is the compelling performances of its principal actors. The rather derivative sci-fi plot however, is merely a vehicle to highlight the melodramatic interconnection between Gwen, Gwen 2.0 and Jules. I suspect that many more women can relate to a film such as this than men. The mere trappings of a futuristic society are not enough to truly engage a demanding, critical viewer. Again, this is a film that simply needed to be far more imaginative than the final product proffered up here.

In a time when the visionary science fiction of Asimov, Clarke, Lem, Delany, le Guin et al has degenerated to the comic book syfy of Morvel entertainless, a film like Advantageous shows people how the genre used to be (& how it could be again in the future). The issues it raises are real; & explored with passionate integrity in a script co-written by director Jennifer Phang & star Jacqueline Kim. The look is realistic, with a disciplined use of SF imagery to remind viewers that this is a future which can still be prevented (to paraphrase a famous quote by Ray Bradbury). Made on a tiny Kickstarter budget & now available on Netflix, Advantageous would appeal to people with a love of literary science fiction & classic film-making technique; & to those looking for quality feminist story-telling against the morass of GG machisimo. Wonderful. Heartfelt. Beauty. With pain.

Making a believable science fiction film is hard. Making a believable science fiction film on a low-budget is nearly impossible. Well at least it used to be until director Jennifer Phang came along and proved otherwise in her Sundance festival hit, Advantageous. Phang was able to create a futuristic world with minimum visual effects by altering mundane human perception. There are three important techniques she uses to achieve this effect. The first is the deceleration of time for background objects while objects in the foreground continue to move at a regular speed. This mixture of various speeds becomes a motif for understanding the futuristic world she presents to the audience. The second technique is the compression of space achieved by using telephoto and zoom lenses. The human eye perceives depth of field in three dimensions. Objects farther away are small and objects closer to us are big. This is normally replicated with a dolly shot in films where the camera physically tracks forwards or backwards. However, in Advantageous, the zoom lens is used to compress the space in front of us. The camera stays still and we simply get closer to the subject. This causes a flattening of space to the point our eyes are no longer able to perceive the distance between the foreground objects and background objects. The third technique Phang uses to create a believable science fiction world is silence. Yes I talk about silence a lot, but it does wonders. Our ears are not used to hearing complete and utter silence. In every moment, even at the quietest moments, we are subjected to some level of constant ambient noise. Whether it's coming from the Air Conditioner, the Fridge, the Wind, there's always something preventing us from experiencing complete silence. However, when we do finally get the chance and we see a character on a big screen screaming and crying in complete silence, our ears are hit with a new level of sensory experience. The new sensory experience is foreign to our ears and forces the audience to take the character he or she is watching out of his assumption of the character's world. This means, the audience finally recognizes that the character he or she is watching does not have the same sensory understanding of the world as he or she does. These three techniques were vital in Phang's ability to successfully create a sophisticated and at the same time genuine science fiction world on a low-budget.

I can't remember how i stumbled on this movie, but I am really glad I did. This movie was such a joy to watch and was very moving. In fact i purposely registered to IMDb to give it a good rating and a review to support this movie. If you choose to watch it, you won't be sorry! For an independent film on a budget, the quality of the cinematography was great, as was the acting, and everything else, there's so much talent put into this film. Jacqueline Kim did a wonderful job at acting in this film in her portrayal of Gwen and Samantha Kim as her daughter Jules. And Jacqueline Kim and Jennifer Phang wrote such a moving and beautiful movie.

Advantageous is a really well written Sci-Fi indie film that deals with the human condition of love that a mother has for her child. Although the film takes place in the future, the human conditions in the film can be related to any given time period and at any place. The movie also makes you think about the the future of our technologies that we are developing as we are always in search for a way to keep our appearance looking young. But the Film takes it to the next step, when we now have the chance to completely change our appearance by moving one's mind into another's body to the point that the only "real" existence of human is only in the mind and the memories that we carry. I would recommend this movie and you will not be disappointed.

Imaginative, heart rending, and thought-provoking. The perfect antidote to the same-old same-old that Hollywood offers. A real work of art, but engrossing at the same time. As with her last film, Half-Life, the director, Jennifer Phang (pronounced pahng not fang) tells a family-driven story set within the context of an unsettling future world. Along the way, there is plenty of commentary not only on the world of the story, but also our own world of today. Performances are strong, especially from lead Jacqueline Kim, who is so compelling as the protagonist, who will do anything for her daughter but also is very human and flawed. The special effects are terrific for such a low budget indie, and they never go over the top or detract from the story. This is the kind of movie that reminds you of what originality in the movies is like - such a refreshing change from the formulaic movies that seem to dominate the market these days.

This was a great feat of storytelling, laying out the tale of single mother Gwen who essentially sacrifices her life so that her daughter's (Jules) future might be better. It's a future where today's dangers are amplified, to the point where Gwen is fired for being too old, then later rehired after she agrees to undergo a radical, life-changing medical procedure to reduce her apparent age. Gwen's best friend Lily, and her fundamentalist mother, refuse to hear her pleas for help, and don't understand the sad, horrible loss that will occur when Gwen is transformed by the procedure. Truly a clarifier for today's work and family issues. In 1-1/2 hours, we are exposed to the harsh and sad truths of non-affluent families, but altered in a way so that we can let it in and comprehend it. It sneaks in past the filters we have for ordinary storytelling tropes, that's the genius of Advantageous. Brava. You made me feel something, director and writers. How rare is that, in a time when filmmakers mostly coddle and protect us from feeling something other than manufactured joy.

Advantageous is a true gem. It's not at all what you expect from a sci-fi movie. It's so much more than that. It's a beautifully written story about love. A Story of a mother who is prepared to sacrifice everything for her daughter. This is not a super fast film, you might even call it a bit slow, but this is a good thing. The director takes time to tell the story, letting us enjoy every minute and every shot of her film. A great director, stunning cinematography and a cast of actors delivering top performances make this film a must see! Jaqueline Kim, who also co-wrote, Samantha Kim, James Urbaniak, Freya Adams, Ken Jeong and Jennifer Ehle all are amazing actors! Looking forward to see more future work of Jennifer Phang.