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ACTOR
Jacqueline KimJames UrbaniakFreya AdamsKen Jeong
DIRECTOR
Jennifer Phang
SYNOPSICS
Advantageous (2015) is a English,French movie. Jennifer Phang has directed this movie. Jacqueline Kim,James Urbaniak,Freya Adams,Ken Jeong are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2015. Advantageous (2015) is considered one of the best Drama,Family,Sci-Fi movie in India and around the world.
In a near-future city where soaring opulence overshadows economic hardship, Gwen and her daughter Jules do all they can to hold on to their joy together, despite the instability surfacing in their world.
Advantageous (2015) Reviews
seductive but with a fatal flaw
hmmm, lots of people loved this film...and undoubtedly it is beautifully crafted and the acting is exceptional. The whole atmosphere draws you in with both poetry and passion, stylistically it is subtle but powerful. Yet the heart of the movie is the philosophical and spiritual meaning of the mother and daughter relationship between Gwen and Jules, and here there is a paradox which is the climax of the plot, and which the entire film depends on to work. This paradox, however is glossed over. The film would've worked better had it been confronted more clearly. As it was, it strained the credibility of the message of the film. Gwen decides she must put her daughter's needs before all else. That's understandable, she loves her daughter, they have a deep connection, and only have each other in a sterile and insecure world where the status of women depends on their marketability and connections. Nothing groundbreaking there. To help her daughter, Gwen must take action when she loses her job. As you watch it, ask yourself: does Gwen's decision really match her deepest values as a mother? Was there really no better alternative? Here's the spoiler: Gwen decides to sacrifice the one thing that her daughter needs more than anything...her own mother... So that Jules can go to an elite school. Where the other mothers are horrid, vapid things, whom Gwen clearly dislikes. Can that really be the best thing for Jules? Gwen seems despairing of the way the world is. Yet she sacrifices the most precious things in both their lives so that Jules can become the same commodity that Gwen became. WTF??? Several times the question is raised: why am I here? Why am I alive? But this question is glossed over. Gwen's best answer seems to be that she didn't know what the point of her life was until she had Jules, then Jules became the point of her life. So then she sets things up so that Jules can live the same kind of pointless life? WTF??? Gwen attempts to hide the truth from her daughter. This was the weakest point in the whole script. Presumably it was supposed to highlight Gwen's understanding that the most important thing to Jules was her relationship with her mother, the most real and secure thing she had in the world. And not let her feel guilty about her mother's sacrifice. Yet Gwen's decision destroyed this relationship. And clearly a smart, sensitive kid like Jules is going to work out pretty quickly that something is seriously wrong. The last scenes ironically show the alternative decision that Gwen could've made. A simpler life with family rather than status giving security and meaning to life. The film asks us to believe that this option wasn't possible because the chance came too late. Well, that only works if you buy the premise that Gwen couldn't imagine that Jules could've have been happier with a working class life, even home schooled, but with her real mother. For me this film would have had a far stronger feminist message had Gwen rejected the roles that society imposed on herself and her daughter, even if it meant being poor and old. Major spoiler: Finally Gwen also knowingly participated in a con that not only actively encouraged many other people, especially women, to be insecure about their aging, but amounted to being an accessory to their murder. Yet the film barely touches on this, except to emphasize the sacrifice Gwen made for her daughter. Hmmm. This film seduces the viewer but left a nasty taste in my mouth at the end.
Humbling, subtle and finessed.
Watching this film made for a beautiful and worthwhile evening. I loved the stillness it evoked, as it asked me to consider what is important in my life. Samantha Kim, (Jules), did a wonderful job of showing all that a young girl can be: kind, humble, and entranced by the delicate joy that life can hold, while also questioning her place and position in a world that only sees what she can give - instead of what she is. Jacqueline Kim, (Gwen), evokes the challenges facing many women today - when career and family choices have long lasting results - in a performance full of silence. The cinematography that supports the silence means that Kim's message is heard more than if it were shouted. The cover image is almost a misnomer as it appears to import more value to the science, when this film is most definitely about the human condition. I absolutely recommend taking the time to watch, think and share.
Mesmerizing sci-fi portraying real human emotions and interactions
Wow. I had no idea what to expect when I put this on, but it blew me completely away. I am certain that the pacing may alienate many a viewer expecting every, "good" sci-fi to be filled mainly with spectacular future-tech fighting, and maybe scratch the surface of big questions in a futuristic society. Advantageous do approach the latter, although nuanced, and more subtle than most films in this genre do. First and foremost, Advantageous focus on what defines the parent/child-relationship through portrayals of emotions and behavior that feel real. Not overly dramatic, not "scripted" like in most movies, but like the breathing dialectics of how those mechanics do work in real life. The stage is set in a dystopian future. There are elements of class conflict, and philosophical approaches to defining the Id and the Ego. But these are still all secondary to the parental element. I didn't feel that the topics were rushed, too complicated, pretentious or superficially presented in any way, but that might be a matter of my approach as a viewer; my focus on the movie while it ran, and my general interest in the subjects in my own life. I also found Advantageous to be stylistically excellent. From the general designs, locations, wardrobe, make-up, CGI. The lead actors did a great job, and the directing was superbly executed. Same goes for both editing and the atmospheric soundtrack; technical elements that I find myself often annoyed at in many a modern movie. I'd put Advantageous under the same banner as Her and Ex Machina, for comparison. Although it should be noted that the melancholic joyfulness from Her, and the enigmatic suspense from Ex Machina are both lacking completely here as Advantageous is a lot more of a subtle epic, with a focus on the humane interrelationships much more than what both those movies do. And to me, that was exactly what made Advantageous such a brilliant, unique gem, although I dearly love both Her and Ex Machina as well.
Fantastic Film
I ran across Advantageous on Netflix after starting and stopping a couple of big budget movies. I will concede that I am a sucker for sci-fi, but this is more than sci-fi. It is a question about medical science and implications for humanity. It is also a question about the priorities of society and what poorly chosen ones can cost us. I can honestly say a film has not caught my attention and made me think this much in years. The strength of the film is obvious because it did not rely on elaborate special effects and action scenes to have an impact. As one reviewer described it, the deliberate choice of everything - from color, to music, to lighting was so well thought out, it was truly watching moving artwork. And yes, I used the word film to describe this work rather than movie. The two have a definite distinction.
Feminist science fiction that focuses too much on metaphysical questions
The plot: In a dystopian future, an Asian woman approaching middle age is fired from her job at a creepy multinational corporation because they want a younger, more racially ambiguous spokesperson. How far will she go to regain her job? The premise is definitely interesting, and there were parts of the film that I really liked. However, the story continually came back to tedious metaphysical themes that bored me. In the end, I realized that the film was about the metaphysical themes, and this left me feeling a bit unfulfilled. I suppose it was even more so about cultural criticism, especially a feminist critique of how society treats female aging and beauty. But it kept coming back again and again to these questions of "why am I here", "what is my purpose", and "is there something insubstantial, such as love, that science can't replicate in a lab"? Kim plays a woman who must make a life-changing choice. Unemployment is skyrocketing, men are pressuring women to leave the workforce, and older workers are seen as hopelessly out-of-touch with the modern market. In fact, humans themselves are being rapidly replaced, and the only way to secure any kind of hope for your child's future is for them to attend the most prestigious schools. The alternative seems to be child prostitution. Most of this is established in the background; if you don't pay close attention, you'll miss it. Unexplained explosions rock the sterility and eerie quiet of the world, and news reports hint at terrorist uprisings because of a hopeless, jobless populace. So, when you lose your job, that basically means that you've lost everything. What if your employer offers to give you your job back if you'll let them control who you are? So, our protagonist becomes desperate to avoid forcing her own daughter to make these same kinds of desperate choices. What can she do but accept? The question becomes what price she has paid. As the film mulls this over, I began to lose interest. Normally, it takes very little for me to become heavily involved in a character's plight, but, in this case, I struggled. Maybe it's because I don't have kids. For a parent, maybe this would be a more harrowing tale. There are many admirable aspects to this film, chief among them a woman-centric tale that feels genuine. In some science fiction films, the female protagonist seems to have been written as a male who then gets a gender-flip to mix things up. Or she's a sexual object for the viewers to ogle. There's nothing wrong with a bit of exploitative science fiction, but it's nice to see something with higher aspirations every once in a while. This certainly has that, but it goes so far as to seem pretentious at times. Maybe this was simply too far outside of my demographic. On the surface, it's got a lot of themes and ideas that appeal to me, but the focus seems to be diametrically opposed to how I would have done it. Less metaphysics, more world-building. If you're interested in feminist science fiction, however, this is rare example. You should at least give it a chance if you're interested in such things. Perhaps you'll be more intrigued by the themes than I was.