In Jennifer Phang’s 2015 film “Advantageous,” she takes us into the not-so-distant future, in a major American city characterized by unsettling, and in some cases terrifying, dystopian visions. In this visually opulent, but curiously empty city, Phang suggests a future where women are becoming sterile from environmental and psychological stress; children are homeless and prostituted; and everyone ruthlessly calculates how to secure a future for themselves and their children by scrabbling to the top, into the “elite” class, at all costs. As part of her illustration of this future world, Phang selected a few contemporary anxieties—including the cost of education and the pervasiveness of surveillance—and exaggerated them to create her horrifying
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In 2015, we are aware to some extent of government surveillance on ordinary citizens. In the future world that Phang predicts, however, state surveillance is not as pervasive as private surveillance by corporations. Phang portrays a world where drones regularly patrol the skies; however, she also shows us that the owners of at least some of those drones are not the government, but private companies, such as the one Gwen works for. In one scene when Gwen’s manager has to tell her some sensitive information, their boss tries to follow them with a drone and listen to their conversation. In fact, one of the few visible differences of Phang’s dystopia is the constant presence of drones. Unlike either sci-fi films, which often depict future societies filled with flying cars, spacesuit attire, and various newfangled robots, in Advantageous, the technology of everyday life does not look much different from today--one of the exceptions, however, is the presence of drones, which respond at once to terrorist attacks, follow citizens, and light up the night sky. What’s more is that the characters in Phang’s film seem to regard these drones as unremarkable sights. In this future world, Phang implies that giant corporations, and not necessarily governments, are the ones that have all the power and privilege, and that they ruthlessly exploit their advantages to maintain their status; furthermore, citizens have been desensitized to the pervasiveness of these technologies, and appear to accept their constant surveillance as a matter of
In 2015, we are aware to some extent of government surveillance on ordinary citizens. In the future world that Phang predicts, however, state surveillance is not as pervasive as private surveillance by corporations. Phang portrays a world where drones regularly patrol the skies; however, she also shows us that the owners of at least some of those drones are not the government, but private companies, such as the one Gwen works for. In one scene when Gwen’s manager has to tell her some sensitive information, their boss tries to follow them with a drone and listen to their conversation. In fact, one of the few visible differences of Phang’s dystopia is the constant presence of drones. Unlike either sci-fi films, which often depict future societies filled with flying cars, spacesuit attire, and various newfangled robots, in Advantageous, the technology of everyday life does not look much different from today--one of the exceptions, however, is the presence of drones, which respond at once to terrorist attacks, follow citizens, and light up the night sky. What’s more is that the characters in Phang’s film seem to regard these drones as unremarkable sights. In this future world, Phang implies that giant corporations, and not necessarily governments, are the ones that have all the power and privilege, and that they ruthlessly exploit their advantages to maintain their status; furthermore, citizens have been desensitized to the pervasiveness of these technologies, and appear to accept their constant surveillance as a matter of