Cinema: ‘The Beta Test’ Just Caught, Time to Apologize

The power dynamic has been flipped upside down. Due to the rise of cancel culture and the #MeToo movement in recent years, people in places of power have been held more accountable for their past misdeeds. The Beta Test looks at both cancel culture and the #MeToo movement from the perspective of corporate psychopaths that can no longer do whatever they want and get away with it. The film is intelligently written about how that loss of control affects people in powerful positions. Accountability is the one thing these people never wanted, and that time has finally come.

The film is about successful Hollywood talent agent, Jordan Hines (Jim Cummings), who is in the process of planning his wedding with his fiance, Caroline Gates (Virginia Newcomb). One day, Jordan receives a mysterious purple letter with an invitation to an anonymous sexual encounter at the Royal Hotel. He is immediately tempted by the prospect of anonymous sex. After a few days, he responds to the letter and goes to the hotel. At the hotel, he is blindfolded and has sex with the woman, essentially cheating on his soon-to-be wife. After this happens, he is happier and begins to be more productive at work. As time passes, he becomes paranoid and worried that what happened will be used against him as blackmail. He frantically tries to uncover the secret of who he slept with, who sent the letter and why he received it in the first place. As he spirals, he lashes out at everyone around him, trying to retain power in his position as a Hollywood talent agent. Beta Test was released and given a limited U.S. theatrical release on November 15, 2021 and has recently started streaming on Hulu on February 4, 2022. The film is written and directed by Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe, the editing done by Jim Cummings as well. They are both known from their short film Thunder Road which created a lot of buzz in the film festival circuit in 2016. After that short, the two filmmakers have been slowly growing in acclaim for their well written low budget films.

In the last six years actors, writers, directors, producers and studio executives are finally being taken to task on their past abuses within the corporate power vacuum. The fallout has been immense and it is hopefully the start of more accountability within the industry. However, during this time, there have been plenty of men that have become defensive and feel as though the shift in power to the survivor is unfair. That is where the Beta Test comes in. The film is essentially a backwards #MeToo movement film. There is no woman as victim or survivor, but rather men in power (or in the case of the film, seeking power) – trying to be perceived as the victim. They cry and blame others for the fact that they cannot do whatever they want anymore. There is a moment in the film where Jordan berates his assistant, and says, “I can’t use the language that I’d like to use to you right now because of the new direction that the agency and the country is going, so I won’t.” He is angry at the world for inhibiting him with social rules. This anger in the film turns into desperation and then sadness. Towards the end of the film, during an emotional monologue, Jordan says, “I [expletive] hate the internet. I just want it to be the early 2000’s” while crying and laying on the ground. He is desperate to be in power and get away with whatever he would like, just like the studio executives were able to do in the early 2000’s. While he is crying and groveling, it is hard not to feel almost bad for him because he has become so desperate to be given sympathy. It is like watching a slimy worm trying to escape from an empty matchbox and the action of the squirming inherently evokes sympathy. Then all sympathy is stolen away because it is just a performance from Jordan. He is a brilliantly written and unlikable character trying hard to be liked. None of this nuance could be realized without the acting performance from Jim Cummings.

Jim Cummings essentially plays a corporate psychopath with desperation amplifying his psychopathic tendencies. At the beginning of the film, he is sporadic, like a coked-out Hollywood producer with manic energy. In scenes that are more business related, he is still manic but overly nice with a fake smile like a seedy car salesman. He repeats the phrases, “Hey! There’s my guy” and “How are you?” throughout the film with an overly friendly tone, acting like he cares about people. Towards the end of the film, Cummings becomes much more frenzied like a rat stuck in a cage. He yells at people and grits his teeth when smiling. At the very end he is reduced to groveling and crying on the floor of a car garage, writhing around and begging his wife for sympathy while professing his misdeeds as if that will make him seem more likeable. The whole performance is perfect for the story. Jim Cummings does an original take on how a person like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000) would act in 2021 (minus the murder). With the performance aside, The Beta Test is a prime example of good low budget filmmaking.

An article from movies, films and flicks states that The Beta Test  had a $250,000 budget, which is incredibly low for an Indie feature. For comparison, in newbiefilmschool, they state that an independent movie roughly costs 2 million to make. A micro-budget film costs $400,000 to make so a $250,000 budget is not only unheard of, it rarely happens, let alone it never looks as good as The Beta Test. Instead of being constricted by the budget, the film uses it to its advantage. To add to the stressful atmosphere, there are scenes that are overwhelmed with sound. The film is loud, almost representing the frenetic nature of Hollywood, but the scenes when the filmmakers Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe want to emphasize a dramatic moment become excruciatingly quiet and all that is heard is the dialogue from one or two characters.That is how you use sound thematically. Also, there are some well cut montages that show the excess of Jordan’s lifestyle. These montages add a feeling of excitement to the film and make the excesses seem enticing. This is how a super low budget should be filmed. A film is not just about acting or story: editing and sound should not be neglected in filmmaking.

Overall, the film feels timely and will only grow in popularity. It is an excellent character study highlighting the effect on the psyche of Hollywood in the wake of the #MeToo movement and how cancel culture has stripped them of their tools of deception. Instead of putting the perspective on the survivors, it is about perpetrators trying to be seen as victims. It calls out bad players in a morally corrupt system. P.J McCabe and Jim Cummings have created yet another low budget wonder. The film highlights the reality that when someone in power is caught doing something wrong, then they say a deep apology and profess their guilt. This begs the question: are they actually sorry? Maybe the fact that they only apologize after being caught says more to their character, than the character of those accusing them.