Advantageous
Aug 14, 2015
(Jennifer Phang, 2015, United States, DCP, 97 min)
Director Jennifer Phang and Editor Sean Gillane in attendance!
Seattle premiere!
Happy Hour at 7:30!
In a not-too distant future, mind and body are malleable. What do intelligence and beauty mean when they become products to be picked off the shelf? What does a society look like in this ‘perfect’ new world? How about a family?
Advantageous gives us this beautiful world, anchored in two terrific performances: Jacqueline Kim as Gwen, a resilient mother, and Samantha Kim as her charismatic daughter.
Along with this beautifully portrayed relationship, director Jennifer Phang immerses the audience into an eerie world of stunning skyscrapers and artificial intelligence. Restrained cinematography and a character-driven script delicately captures the zero-sum mentality that pervades this future. These characters speak a language of competition, optimization, and, ultimately, desperation. This is sophisticated sci fi, shaped by an exciting voice in independent cinema that asks important questions about technology, feminism, and love.
Every so often, though, a small-scale, thoughtful movie like “Advantageous” comes along and summons up a speculative new world with brains - New York Times
chilling as both a piece of speculative fiction and in its eerie plausibility. - AV Club
Phang undoubtedly has a distinctive style that’s entirely her own - The Hollywood Reporter