Hyperreal film club presents: Advantageous

SECOND LOOK
-a-
HYPERREAL FILM CLUB series
-at-
the MUSEUM OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT
-presents-

ADVANTAGEOUS
Directed by Jennifer Phang
2015

7pm – doors // live set – DJ Adult Themes
8pm – “Beach Dance” by director Brittany Reeber
815pm – ADVANTAGEOUS

Beverages provided by our most excellent friends at 4th Tap Brewing Co-op

Suggested $5 donation at the door
Screenings every other Thursday (mostly) all winter long
PART ~TWO~ of ~SEVEN~

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The past looks a lot like the present in “Advantageous,” a science-fiction fantasy in a deliberately subtle key. It’s set in the near future and big-city life appears to hum along very much as it does now, what with the digital billboards and soaring glass-and-metal towers and despite the occasional zippy, low-moving aircraft. The director Jennifer Phang never explains who’s piloting those sleek flying discs or setting off the periodic explosions that scarcely rock this world. The most urgent concerns for Gwen (Jacqueline Kim) throb out a familiar beat: child, career, enough water to live.

For some time, she has served as a spokeswoman for the bland-sounding Center for Advanced Health and Living, one of those creepy medical technology outfits vibrating with menace that suggest untold horrors, both scientific and bureaucratic. There, a couple of crypt-creepers, Fisher (James Urbaniak, excellent) and Isa (Jennifer Ehle, perfect), murmur and scheme, primarily about Gwen and a new procedure, seemingly solely for women, that will change their faces, bodies and perhaps souls.

Too often, contemporary science-fiction movies are just thrillers pumped up with special effects and the latest in zap-gun futurology. Big-wow explosions and franchise brands tend to matter more than ideas in these tricked-out action flicks, especially in the shiniest, priciest major-studio releases. Every so often, though, a small-scale, thoughtful movie like “Advantageous” comes along and summons up a speculative new world with brains, some frugal sleight of hand and the cool confidence that, in the future, our greatest threat won’t be rampaging robots or alien invasions but the same hard-charging menace that’s haunted the planet since time immemorial — people.

-New York Times

take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnBT0izYi7A&t=2s

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About the short:

Beach Dance

Synopsis: Lucy is trying to get comfortable at the beach.

Bio: Brittany is a Floridian turned Texan living in Brooklyn. She makes short films and music videos.

Website: http://brittanyreeber.com/

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Hyperreal Film Club was named “Best More-Than-Just-Film Series” by The Austin Chronicle
For more information on HFC, visit hyperrealfilm.club

SECOND LOOK, a bi-weekly series running from December – March, brings back to the big screen seven films by women, all released in the past five years, all featuring diverse perspectives on both sides of the camera. With this series, we want to progress as an advocate for the current work of adventurous, diverse filmmakers and as a community film hub for Austin.

This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.