Advantageous (2015)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Dreadfully Boring

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A mother agrees to "copy" her self in younger body to support her child. almost two third of the movie shown slowly how was the mother life before the operation and how it is hard to get a living and prepare children while they are young for programmed future for them!.. the final third shows the mother after the operation and how she coup with the new body and "new" life!!.. weird but nice!.. reflects writer's views on females struggle in life!

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.

Advantageous explores themes of technology in relation to the alteration of the human physique and the social impacts of it. The film also asks the question how far these ideas can be taken by humans. The main character in the film, Gwen, has to change her appearance in order to become a better public figure for her job. The obvious idea here is that she is getting old and her looks are not enough. But I found it interesting that the film had a large cast of East Asian actors, and that when she switched her appearance to that of a Caucasian woman. This speaks about the obsession that Western media has with the looks of Caucasians.We find out near the end that Gwen in reality had to die and a clone of her with a different appearance took her place when she got the augmentation. This twist is shown to the viewer via a flashback. Gwen wilfully agrees, knowing that her daughter will be raised by this clone. Themes of family, capitalist economy and determination come to the forefront. The second half of the Advantageous is largely spent on the ramifications of this decision. And to me, is where the film finally becomes interesting. I initially found the movie to be a tad dull. Many of the actors in the film, including the lead are very blank faced, humourless and oddly stoic. Even the usually goofy Ken Jeong shows up for a limited part where he does not even get to crack a smile. The film is going for an aesthetic of pure realism, though I have never found that "plain" can equate "relatable". The lack of personality for me always makes scenes of exposition similar to the experience of reading a book unless the acting is absolutely perfect. So, on that level, the film did not work for me as much of the dialogue is in fact, exposition. However, this sense of realism began to grow on me as the film went along. I have always found myself to be interested in the theatrical aspects of cinema, working with actors, telling narrative stories. And this film took a turn for the better in its second half, because my favourite type of science fiction is the type that is about the feeling of ideals rather than an analysis of them. Film, to me, is a medium that is purely about making the viewers feel emotion, and this movie at its core is about the relationship of a mother and daughter. The idea of science fiction films being an impossibility as mentioned in Grant's "Sensous Elaboration", I think is more about the distinguishment between interesting and uninteresting science fiction films. The difference between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar is that despite being films about similar subject matter, they handle it differently. In Interstellar characters discuss the science fiction ideals with expository dialogue so that the audience understands what is happening while in 2001, Kubrick does very little to explain what is happening and the film is therefore more of a sensorial experience. This film explores a what-if scenario in which these two characters faced an impossible situation, which made it interesting. The movie to me is about how the relationship of two people would be affected in a fictional world. Since the intricacies of the technology is not necessarily spectacular, the film explores the characters, and if it were to focus solely on the technology, the film would be very boring to me. Instead, it is a serviceable character piece with a science fiction backdrop.

What a pleasant surprise this film was. While trying not to get too much into detail, as not to spoil any of the intricacies of the movie, I'll say that while this is in the realm of sci-fi, the movie has much more on it's mind than merely that. It conveys as much in it's beautiful nuances and a refreshing subtlety that is sadly missing from many newer films of it's ilk. The film is also wonderfully acted across the board. So that doesn't hurt.This mini-review was inspired by a haiku that I wrote on twitter, which I shall also include here for the sake of posterity (if for nothing else) Also in revised form as the original was sadly incorrectly in 5 7 6Character driven Well crafted slice of sci-fi Deliberate pace