Advantageous

Lore & Background

The film follows Gwen, a woman who sells cosmetic procedures for the Center for Advanced Health and Living. After being fired, she faces financial pressure to secure her daughter Jules's education. With women becoming infertile, her only job offer is as an egg donor. Desperate, Gwen volunteers for an experimental procedure that transfers her consciousness into a new, younger, racially ambiguous body, hoping to keep her job and ensure Jules's future. The procedure requires her to take shots every two hours for a year to breathe.

Reader's Guide

Advantageous originated as a 23-minute short film for the series Futurestates, directed by Jennifer Phang and starring Jacqueline Kim. Phang and Kim expanded it into a feature over about a year, with most cast members returning. The film was influenced by The Age of Innocence, Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica, and Ghost in the Shell. Filming took place in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco between 2012 and 2014. The film received mixed to positive reviews, with an 86% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews. Critics noted its thought-provoking questions about gender and family, though some found its pacing slow or its structure unconventional. The film won editing, score, and directing awards at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2015, and Jacqueline Kim won a Renaissance Artist award for co-writing and starring.

Did You Know?

• The film was originally a 23-minute short film for the series Futurestates before being expanded into a feature.
• The procedure in the film requires the recipient to take shots every two hours for a year to breathe.
• Gwen's original consciousness dies during the procedure, and the new body is a twin implanted with her memories.
• The film won a Sundance Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision.