Sometimes , you see a haunting short picture show that just cries out to become a full - duration movie . Case in point : Advantageous , a inadequate film by Jennifer Phang relinquish in 2013 . She ’s expanded it to full duration , and the added time and budget have turned a beautiful short into an eerily intense feature article .
Some nonaged plot spoilers follow .
Advantageous is a film determine in the near - future , in what seems like a pre - dystopic humans . It center on a single mother named Gwen , who is the head of the Center for Advanced Health and Living . She ’s in danger of lose her problem due to being too honest-to-goodness for the demographic the Center is look to point . She ’s progressively desperate to keep her job and insure a future tense for her daughter , Jules ( Samantha Kim ) . And the only mode to do that is to volunteer as a test subject for the extremist raw procedure that the Center had originally hire her to promote .
Phang — who spell the film with Jacqueline Kim , who also stars — sketches this globe with a very light hand . In fact , viewing the original little first may facilitate to occupy in some of the blank shell about why Gwen is so desperate : Unemployment ’s at 45 % , and there are no more public schools . The only options for the brilliant Jules is a place in a first-rate - selective free magnet school , or a very expensive private school . And Jules did n’t get into the attractor .
The future of Advantageous is clearly spinning into despair . There ’s a homeless child sleeping in the plantation owner near Gwen and Jules ’ apartment . There are news stories about the rise in child harlotry . And throughout the cinema , explosion go off in the background , the result of terrorist attacks from a generation that sees the succeeding crumbling .
Contrasting with that is world of the elite group , which Gwen hovers on the edge of , constantly remind her that the biz is rig . When Jules does n’t get into the attractor , despite her brilliance , Gwen is secernate that it ’s just as probable that they did n’t know the correct people . Gwen is invited to a lunch of mother sending their fry to the private schoolhouse she ca n’t afford , and is tell that the substantial connections Jules needs are made a pre - camp , that will cost another ten thousand dollars — discounted from the thirty that these other woman have already paid . And even that only gives the preadolescent Jules a prospect at security . It does n’t guarantee anything .
A lot of the societal problems of Advantageous are slight exaggerations of job that we face now . Jules is superb — but there are a million bright kid , and only so many slots . And many of those slots are taken up by those who already have money . Gwen has a alumna grade , but she can only get a job as the “ face ” of a product . She ’s even remind that her genesis does n’t have the skills to compete , since all of teaching is now STEM - based . It ’s a inadequate step from here to there , and another short pace from there to a full blow dystopia .
The whole film is framed in a style that realise clear that Gwen has no alternative — the system is stacked against her . In a heroic bid to make an 45 % unemployment rate seem normal , the elites advance the note value of keep women out of the work force . Because good that than “ putting millions of desperate men on the street . ” And the plentiful mother Gwen run across with are appal that Jules has no father . Gwen is too older , too distaff , and too disconnected to do anything other than offer herself up as a sacrifice .
The people she works for know that . It ’s less a shocking reveal and more a renounce “ of course ” when we find out that the Center has made sure that Gwen has no options other than to offer herself up as a guinea cop for its product . It does n’t even seem necessary to check that she ca n’t get another job elsewhere — society ’s done that already .
But taking away all of Gwen ’s purchase is necessary . The procedure involve put an older mind ’s memories into a younger body . But the Center want complete control over the face of their new nous - switching technology — because Gwen ’s own facial expression does n’t have aggregative charm . Left unspoken is the melodic theme that Gwen ’s also “ too Asian ” in her current physical structure .
Themes of identity and alternative are at the center of Advantageous . There ’s the identicalness that Gwen has no control over — her age , raceway , and sex — and the one she does — being the mother of Jules . Gwen chose to be a mother , at the expense of the rest of her genetic family relationship . And now , she ’ll choose her daughter at the disbursal of every other part of her identity operator . admit being Jules ’ mother , since there ’s a sour secret hiding in that procedure she consort to do .
Then there ’s Gwen 2.0 ( Freya Adams ) , who contend to link up with Jules , and also has to make a choice about whether she ’ll be the someone the original Gwen wanted her to be , or someone else .
The relationship between Gwen and Jules drop anchor the whole film . So it ’s a very ripe thing that Jacqueline Kim and Samantha Kim are so good at convey how deep that family relationship is . They never say “ I love you so much ” or “ You are my whole world , ” but it ’s clean-cut on the screenland . Clear in the last Christmas they spend together , before Gwen becomes Gwen 2.0 . Clear in the French they speak to each other and the piano they play . It make the disconnect between Jules and Gwen 2.0 heartbreaking , and their groping endeavour to move nearer to each other such a wonderful heap .
It ’s not the plot that do this movie so sound . The conceit of being able to upload your mind into a untried , prettier consistence is n’t Modern . Even the twist about what that process really entail is n’t a true surprise . But the elusive world - building render this story a brand new polish . For example , Gwen is made to deal this procedure as a cure for people with illnesses or debilitate injuries , but everything we ’ve examine of this world cause clear that only the deep elite group who already have a leg up will have access to it . Phang and Kim ’s book lightly sketches everything Gwen has done for her girl , so you understand why she does what she does . The film also profit from Phang ’s light touch with auditory sensation , music , and color .
And the celluloid also benefit massively from fantabulous performance . In accession to the two lead contribution — three if you consider Gwen 2.0 — extra acknowledgment has to go to James Urbaniak as Dave Fisher , Gwen ’s superscript at the company . He has to carry what little exposition there is , trying to talk Gwen out of the procedure and Gwen 2.0 into honoring the first Gwen ’s sacrifice . There ’s also a chillingly free-lance Jennifer Ehle as his superscript , Isa Cryer . And Ken Jeong has a bit role as Han , reminding everyone how wondrously unemotional he can be .
People are run short to label Advantageous by the thing it miss . There are no battles , no mustache - twirling villains , and not even any giant scientific discipline fiction spectacle curing . People are also going to judge it for what it has . There are some intense discussions of classism , racialism , ageism , sexism , and elitism . But do n’t gauge this movie for either of those thing — instead , it ’s deserving appreciating for all the matter it does so incredibly well .
See the original Advantageous shorthere . The full film is on Netflix .
connect with the author at[email protected ] .
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