There are escapist sci-fi movies that transport us to a world of spine-tingling aliens and visceral space travel. Then there are subtle dystopian …
There are escapist sci-fi movies that transport us to a world of spine-tingling aliens and visceral space travel. Then there are subtle dystopian films that shine their brightest after the credits roll, ensuring your return to reality isn’t without a fresh, existential perspective. I know you know about Black Mirror’s reputation for the latter, but let me introduce you to 2015’s artful, avant-garde, flick Advantageous. It’s available on Netflix, right now. The dream-like, eerily toned film revisits a question often pondered by humans: What does it mean to be alive? The movie brings up this sentiment verbatim just once or twice, but it’s ultimately addressed in a quiet, painful, nuanced way. Director Jennifer Phang shows the viewer how certain aspects of our deepest selves will never be programmable. She basically asks: What if we were pressured to forfeit parts of our humanity to keep living under the social contract handed down to us? What if we refused? Gwen, played by Jacqueline Kim, is the story’s protagonist. She works for a futuristic biomedical device company and serves as our eyes into the movie’s realm.
