ADVANTAGEOUS

ADVANTAGEOUS. Jennifer Phang, director and co-script with Jacqueline Kim. USA: Netflix (video)/Film Presence (theatrical), 2015.[1] Dara Wishingrad, production design.

Discussed by T. S. Miller, SFRA Review #315 (Winter 2016): pp. 36-38.[2]

Advantageous is set in an unidentified megalopolis where anti-technocratic terrorist bombings have be- come routine and advances in holographic informa- tion technology easily facilitate instantaneous per- sonal communication – as well as mass surveillance. Significantly, we only ever see corporations and pri- vate individuals conducting such surveillance, rath- er than governments. The nature of this corporatist future, with government apparently subordinated to capital, clearly signals the film’s cyberpunk influenc- es and ambitions, although this is cyberpunk with a distinctively 21st-century spin.

RDE, finishing, 19Aug21