In the near future, women are being pushed from the workforce again. Financial collapse raises the cost of everything and makes employment scarce. Men are hired for every position possible to keep them off the streets and prevent violent crimes. Gwen, one of the most accomplished people in the plastic surgery industry, faces a lot of challenges. First, as an older woman, she's viewed as a total anomaly in the workforce; only young women are accepted, and only until they get married and leave work. Second, as a single mother, she's bucking the return to traditional morals and forcing herself into a position to work. Third, as Korean American woman, she's viewed as not relatable enough for as powerful a position as she holds. All of this results in her losing her job that's supposed to ensure her daughter Jules can afford every opportunity to guarantee her a successful life.
Star Jacqueline Kim and director Jennifer Phang collaborated on the screenplay for Advantageous. The result is one of strongest dystopian narratives since Margaret Atwood predicted a near-future society would be overrun with fundamentalism in The Handmaid's Tale. Advantageous is a science fiction film about cultural standards and power from a distinctly feminine perspective.
Gwen has no interest in forcing herself into the new standard of appropriate behavior for women. She knows she is the best person to be the new face of a revolutionary non-surgical transformation procedure. Even her bosses tell her so. What stands in her way is not ability but the ever-changing ideal of beauty.
Advantageous is all about the choices in Gwen's life. She can easily reclaim her position of power by undergoing the newest procedure to transform into a totally different looking person--a more relatable, marketable person. She can also always go back to fundamentalist Christian roots, beg her parents for forgiveness for her sins, and never have to work another day in her life. She can also accept a more humble, less advantaged life for her and her daughter by going back to work for her sister in the family's restaurant. Or she can accept that society has changed to the point that her Korean heritage will doom her daughter to a cycle of abuse inflicted by the new patriarchal order.
What would you be willing to sacrifice to build a better life for your child? Advantageous is largely about identity politics. Gwen is proud of who she is, what she looks like, and all she has learned in her life. That means that the choices she made--to leave her parents, to raise Jules on her own, to dedicate her life to a career in front of and behind the scenes of cosmetic surgery--are a sign of pride. She's forced to an impasse where every door is rapidly closing for not bowing down and conforming to the right path for a woman in society.
Jacqueline Kim gives one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking performances in science fiction as a mother on the brink of total collapse. She fills Gwen with so much strength and confidence at the start that every crack, no matter how small, in her perfect veneer explodes onscreen. Her performance leads a talented ensemble cast in a very quiet narrative for modern sci-fi.
Director Jennifer Phang finds the right balance between social commentary and futuristic elements to make Advantageous feel real. Technology has advanced in a realistic and refined way in this vision of the world. The tight quarters--with society reduced to a series of large, overcrowded cities--feature constant reminders of what Gwen will lose if she doesn't betray her morals and accept society's standards.
Advantageous is smart science fiction at its best. Phang and Kim clearly choose what they want to cast a mirror on and build a very touching and somber narrative of mother/daughter bonding around it. The layers of text constantly intermingle and crest to the surface of the narrative. The result is a gutting dystopian film about identity, society, and choice that feels totally believable.
Advantageous is currently streaming on Netflix.
