Advantageous - A Desperate Life
Thoughts On: Advantageous (2015)
On the precipice of losing her job and path in life, a scientist is presented an opportunity in exchange for her body.
Brilliantly complex and profound, Advantageous is a film that presents the purpose of ones life to be a collision of being and outcome; character and aspiration. With its central concept centred on the theme of bodily sacrifice, the narrative presents confounding questions on the importance of ones body in regards to the soul's being. Pushing deep into the notion that a basic denominator of desperation is the relinquishing of the body for material gain as a proxy of the fulfilment of the spirit, it highlights a rift between character and aspiration. Therefore illustrating an aporia in human being, it asks its characters why they are alive in their very struggle for the life they desire. It is death, after all, that appears to be an inevitability in their push for being. To grow is to kill what was before, to transform beyond the present to the degree it becomes unrecognisable; the impetus and impulse toward propagation is to lose oneself for mere time. Alas, that very same impetus and impulse (the soul, being, life) defines the quality of time. And yet it is to fade, to transmute and die. What persists is time; its quality a fleeting observation; observation a dying quality. Therein is life, its romance and torture.
Tremendously ponderous in its calmness, Advantageous is incredibly provoking. Whilst it lacks in depth of emotion in characterisation, it possesses dramatic punctum in abundance; an extremely rewarding watch.
