X
- 2021
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 33 m
- 2021
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 33 m
Summary A married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, murder, and infidelity.
Directed By: Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe
Written By: Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe
- 2021
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 33 m
- 2021
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 33 m
The Beta Test
72
7.0
Where to Watch
Summary A married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, murder, and infidelity.
Directed By: Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe
Written By: Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
72
78% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
22% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
72
78% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
22% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Overall, Cummings and McCabe’s film touches a raw nerve with sharp, funny, awkwardly prickly provocation.
Whilst occasionally breathless to the point of exhausting, there’s nothing second-rate about The Beta Test, a sharp satire on the film industry that really packs a punch.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 User Ratings
7.0
56% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 User Ratings
7.0
56% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jim Cummings is an interesting actor/writer/director. I've only seen his previous film, The Wolf Of Snow Hollow, thinking it was a take on the werewolf genre, but realizing he was examining the breakdown of his sheriff character more than genre conventions. Cummings has the bland handsomeness of a catalog model, with a smile that is just an inch away from a grimace or grinning skull. He portrays a Hollywood agent who receives an invitation for a sexual rendezvous from an anonymous source. Despite an upcoming wedding to a loving fiance (and more likely because of it), he meets up for the anonymous fling (blindfolds are used). Afterwards, he becomes obsessed with the meeting and who set it up. I love how Cummings will stay on an actor (generally himself) as they talk and get themselves deeper and deeper with every word and physical expression. His character is the embodiment of toxic masculinity and privilege, always on the verge of meltdown. An interesting premise, well acted.
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Against a lean genre construction, Cummings sputters and apologizes and screams at people and breaks things—vaping constantly—less a force of nature than a flesh-and-blood body half-failing to contain the whiny forces of nature within. His performance is a miracle of control and timing, focused by how little control Jordan has in his life, how poorly timed everything seems to be.
Cummings and McCabe zero in on an angle they do understand—the death scream of the untouchably powerful man—and can make fun of with precision.
Cummings works the same muscles that attracted attention in the festival darling Thunder Road and its follow-up, The Wolf of Snow Hollow: Exploring the varieties of volatile awkwardness and desperation, he plays a well-known type (the showbiz ladder-climber who’s nothing but a smile) while making the character unlike any we’ve seen.
Cummings and McCabe don’t quite balance the purple envelope mystery with the character study of a self-involved man, and the ending takes a sharp left towards confusion, but it is surely something worth watching.
If one can get past the exaggerated nature of The Beta Test, there’s much to glean from its mixture of laughs and critiques. Come for the mystery, stay for the study of society by two white guys playing absolute assholes. Even if that study reaches farther than it can grasp.
The Beta Test is a psychological thriller of sorts, with the premise of the movie being that a Hollywood agent gets an anonymous note from some alleged woman who wants a casual sexual encounter in a hotel room. He partakes in this and it induces anguish and anxiety. He attempts to uncover who was sending the letters and why and tries to hide the affair from his fiance. The movie is a comedy of manners of sorts similar to American Psycho in that the main character is focused on his appearance and status and possesses an artificial, yuppy-like demeanor. It's also kind of an odd movie as it collapses on its own weight of its premise as it can't adequately explain why the notes were sent out. It turns out they were dispersed by some internet geek in a basement who used an algorithm collecting people's data on social media to instigate the encounter. It made very little sense. It was also never explained what the woman's role was in the hook up, if she was an accomplice to the internet geek or if she was just another recipient. These plot holes brought the movie down a peg, but it was an interesting experience.
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The Beta Test's subject matter is so exposed that perhaps a few lessons in subtlety wouldn't have gone amiss for its creators.
I say this because while the concept is quite evident, the script never makes it clear what it's trying to satirize.
It certainly shows its patterns, but it all feels sloppy, and lacking in cohesion, especially at the point where it can't balance the satirical tone with the tension and paranoia in which the plot begins to envelop its lead character once he falls down the rabbit hole.
It's not a confusing movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it's incongruous and rather inconsistent.
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Production Company
Vanishing Angle,
DiffeRant Productions,
Sons of Rigor Films
Release Date Nov 5, 2021
Duration 1 h 33 m
Rating Unrated
Tagline Embrace temptation.
Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Nashville Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Eastern Oregon Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
