A small-budget gem, Advantageous is a film that sci-fi fans should tick off their list.

| Mar 21, 2023

After the screen faded to black, I silently contemplated what I'd just witnessed, switched off my television and walked away with an odd new lens on what it means to be alive.

| Feb 7, 2023

The film... features stunning cinematography, excellent acting, and beautiful writing (albeit sometimes heavy-handed, which I'd prefer to writing that does not attempt to say anything).

| Feb 3, 2021

Advantageous is a quiet and affecting film that contains a good bit of (not too pointed) social commentary. But it is primarily a meditation on human identity and the delicate nature of familial relationships.

| Mar 11, 2020

The credit goes not only to director Jennifer Phang, but lead Jacqueline Kim, who also co-wrote the screenplay in addition to giving an incredible performance.

| Jan 22, 2020

The film is beautiful, quiet, and has a really great performance by James Urbaniak.

| Aug 23, 2018

t's a small film that tackles a massive issue in a very vulnerable way, yielding a story about a mother's love, self-worth, and youth obsession.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 1, 2017

Advantageous isn't going to win any awards for visual effects (this is a modestly budgeted film), but the writing, directing and performances are so strong that they elevate the film far beyond a simple twist on a classic trope.

| Jun 2, 2017

A thought-provoking sci-fi drama about parenting, education, the commodification of women's bodies, and female unemployment.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 22, 2016

...one of the best science-fiction films of this past year and further proof that female directors know how to deliver on genre films.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 22, 2015

ADVANTAGEOUS is a science fiction film with a much higher budget for art direction than it has for special effects.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 14, 2015

A picture emerges that at times suggests a strange if alluring mash-up of "Stella Dallas" and Michel Foucault, with a smidgen of Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville" and a hint of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

| Jun 25, 2015

Unfortunately, the stilted script and portentous direction make Advantageous, a film written and directed by Asian-American women, a missed opportunity.

| Original Score: C | Jun 25, 2015

As in a lot of good sci-fi, the movie is set in a particular world, but driven by the characters that inhabit it.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 25, 2015

Achieves much on a relatively meager budget (it has an impressive futuristic visual design), and the last half hour is so irresistibly creepy that it's sure to invoke discussion after the screening.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 25, 2015

You've seen enough movies to know it won't go as planned, but director Jennifer Phang's low-budget film is extraordinary in the sly way it dishes out the details.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 24, 2015

Advantageous makes a superb showcase for Kim, a hugely underrated and underutilized talent.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 24, 2015

The dialogue is so disaffected it's as if humans were replicants even before going through the aforementioned twin-making procedure.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 24, 2015

It's not hard to imagine it becoming cult viewing in places like Berkeley, the director's city of birth, or any college town or urban area with the right critical density of literature, film and women's studies majors who sometimes read Wired.

| Jun 23, 2015

From its arresting first scenes, Phang's film is as much about why? as it is what next?

| Jun 23, 2015