Having adeptly explored toxic masculinity through the prisms of drama and horror-comedy with Thunder Road and The Wolf Of Snow Hollow, writer-director-star Jim Cummings (collaborating with co-writer/director PJ McCabe) completes his thematic triptych with The Beta Test, a darkly humorous erotic thriller that — at its best — evokes David Fincher’s clinical precision and Armando Iannucci’s satiric incisiveness. Impressively navigating a post-#MeToo industry reckoning and disputes between talent agencies and the WGA while also functioning as a sweat-inducing study of a sociopath’s self-immolation, Cummings’ latest is a humdinger.
Cummings plays Hollywood agent Jordan Hines, a man who demands the respect of his peers while commanding none. His belligerent wielding of power and inferiority complexes — unleashed in comical, sweaty, oftentimes scathing (occasionally overbearing) outbursts by a magnetic Cummings — contribute to a persona that has all the coyote-like intensity of Nightcrawler’s Lou Bloom and all the cringing desperation of Alan Partridge. With his Tesla (leased), pearly whites (dentured) and credit card (company-charged) superficially covering the cracks in his facade, Jordan’s fiancée Caroline — played with poise by Virginia Newcomb — is all that’s true in his world. And so, of course, he jeopardises that by accepting an anonymous letter inviting him to have kinky, no-strings-attached sex in a swanky hotel.
Excited by his experience — shot with smouldering, sordid sensuality by DP Kenneth Wales — yet terrified of being found out, Jordan’s world capsizes as other letter-receivers start turning up dead and potential mystery mistresses appear everywhere he turns. As his own web of lies threatens to undo him, moments like Caroline’s brutal honesty in telling Jordan, “It must be exhausting pretending to be you,” speak volumes. Not dissimilarly to Uncut Gems, The Beta Test conveys the draining, teeth-clenching act of keeping up appearances forcefully and in style. Excruciating close-ups, bravura editing and an increasingly erratic Ben Lovett string score lock us into Jordan’s increasingly paranoid headspace. Whilst McCabe and Cummings’ script sometimes overstretches itself as it juggles myriad social commentaries, the filmmakers’ fearlessness and boldness has resulted in a work that’s thought-provoking and thrilling in equal measure.
