‘Beta Test’ Review: Paranoia in Hollywood


The 2018 film “Thunder Road,” based on Jim Cummings’ short film of the same name, used long shots to guide the audience through tragicomic sketches in real time. Not so in the “Beta Test”. Here, Cummings (both starring) who co-wrote and directed the film with PJ McCabe experiments with a collage effect, combining fragmented images with a flamboyant central performance to create a rebellious and sometimes muddy satire of Hollywood gluttony.

Cummings plays Jordan, a cool talent agent with fake screams. Engaged to the good-natured Caroline (Virginia Newcomb) and boasting of career success alongside her business partner PJ (McCabe), Jordan specifically suffers from job stress, addiction, and perhaps worst of all, the seductive siren song of unrestrained women. Like a Jim Carrey character torn between a heterosexual man and his state of mind, Jordan frantically tries to suppress his enthusiasm. However, when he accepts a call to participate in an anonymous sex act, Jordan falls into paranoia.

As the tension builds, some scenes point to an exciting rabbit hole of contemporary power dynamics. But taken as a whole, the film suffers from a lack of flow; its jolt is such that it is often unclear what Cummings intends to satirize – yet indirect references to the #MeToo movement provide a clue. Stories of angry alpha males seeing the light are a cinematic holy cow, but lacking clarity of vision or a cohesive world, “Beta Test” looks just as confused as its anti-hero.

Beta Test
Not rated. Working time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters and can be rented or purchased apple tv, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay-TV operators.



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