20 best sci-fi movies featuring women

2. Advantageous

Advantageous is unsettling not just because it’s set in a dystopian near future, but because it is so eerily plausible. Though its script and sometimes self-conscious direction put off some critics, it’s still worth at least a single viewing. It was directed by Jennifer Phang and written by Jacqueline Kim and Phang. It also stars Jacqueline Kim as Gwen Koh, the primary character caught up in the hierarchy-obsessed society of the film.

Gwen starts off as a salesperson, pushing cosmetic procedures through the Center for Advanced Health and Living. When she’s abruptly fired, Gwen begins to fear that her reduced means will lead to a less-than-desirable life for her daughter, Jules.

Soon enough, Gwen becomes desperate to find a new way of making money and forging a path ahead for her small family. She could become an egg donor, but that’s not exactly comfortable or high-earning. She reaches out to her cousin, Lily, and Lily’s husband for financial help, but they’re reluctant to help. They have their own family, after all, and times are difficult for many people.

Without help, it looks like Jules may lose her spot at an elite school. As any modern Manhattan parent focused on prep school pre-k will tell you, the right school can mean everything later on.

Instead, she reaches out to her old employers in a radical attempt to remake herself. Perhaps, if she can transfer her consciousness into a younger and more ethnically ambiguous body, she can get her old job back.

She eventually goes through with the procedure, though the Gwen 2.0 that returns to Jules is obviously changed. It’s strange and ultimately heartbreaking, though it all happened only because a desperate mother wanted more for her daughter.