The Beta Test — The Beta Test(Blu Ray)
The Beta Test blends satire, dark ‘n awkward comedy, and mystery- with light touches of horror, drama & suspense. The 2021 film features a great lead in the form of Jim Cummings, as smug & always trying to (figurative) dodge the bullet Hollywood agent. With a well-placed supporting cast, and a good eye for both uncomfortable & up close, as well as the broodingly moody city shooting. Here from Arrow Video UK is a recent double Blu-ray release of the film- taking in a commentary track, a few other extras, and a second disc of shorts by the same directors.
The Beta Test was co-directed/ written by Jim Cummings & PJ McCabe- who also acts in the film. Cummings has seventeen directors’ credits to his name- taking in four features, and a selection of shorts/ TV series episodes. His other feature lengths take in comedy-drama No Floodwall Here (2010), cop having a breakdown dark comedy/ drama Thunder Road (2018), and horror comedy The Wolf Of Snow Hollow (2020). This is the directorial debut from PJ McCabe- though he has twenty acting credits to his name, six producer credits, and a few writing credits.
The film is based in LA and largely focuses on the world of soon-to-married Hollywood agent Jordan Hines (Cummings). And his best buddy/ working partner is PJ Pruitt (McCabe) who is slightly more likeable/ charming than Jordan- though still rather smug. His intended is a rather homely redhead Caroline (Virginia Newcomb), and the pair are due to be married in just six weeks.
Jordan gets through the post a purple envelope with a wax seal- inside he finds an invitation to a no-strings-attached & anonymous sexual encounter in a plush LA hotel. He throws away the invite in his apartment bin, but as the days tick by he starts drifting off in fantasy regarding sleeping with other women. In the end, he breaks- digs through the trash, and fairly soon he gets a second envelope with a key card in- he makes his way to the hotel, where a blindfold is awaiting on the room's door- he goes in, and quickly drives into a world of doubt, paranoia, and sinister mystery.
In the meantime, we get snapshots of other couples who have been involved in the mysterious note drop- where their partners go on to kill them, after finding out about the note/ their visits to the hotel room.
Cummings really is inspired in his role as the deeply smug, self-obsessed & ingenuous Jordan- and as things develop, he gets more & more twitchier, on-edged, and unsure what he’s seeing/ hearing is real. McCabe adds in a slightly more likeable boyish charm to proceedings- though he’s also rather conceited too. The small surrounding cast is all good too- with the blending of satire, awkward comedy, mystery, light horror & drama very well realized.
The film is also well shot/ realized- going from moody pans of LA with subtle brooding soundscaping. Onto up-close to smug ranting office/apartment-based shots- which often utilizers to great effect flowery & ornate snippets of popular classical music. All in all, making The Beta Test a well-made, rewarding & lightly chuckle-bound ride, which is difficult to fully tie down into just one genre.
Moving onto this new two-disc Blu-ray. And on the first disc, we have the film, and a few extras. The first of these extras is a commentary track with directors Jim Cummings & PJ McCabe- and this is rather good, down to earth & largely very interesting. They move from talking about how the moody cityscape shots were actually stock footage from Vimeo. We find out how they wanted the pre-credit characters to originally be Italian, but as the opportunity to work with great Swedish actors- they went with them instead. We find out the film cost just 250 grand, and it was filmed over seventeen & half days between Oct & Nov 2019. They raised the funds for the film from the public, and think that for future projects they’ll do the same again. We get talk about locations & actors as they appear. They discuss influences on certain scenes, and we find out which scene took thirty takes to get. We find out that some of the interactions between agents & clients were based on real situations. Later on, they talk about the set-up for the death scenes, shots they like, and much more. If you enjoyed the film- it must play track.
Otherwise on the new side, we get Sex, Lies & Purple Envelopes (11.01) a visual essay by author and film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas. Trapped. Hiding. Boom (16.32) a visual essay by author and critic Guy Adams. And on the archive side we have a making of (21.35), trailer, and image gallery.
On the second disc-which is ltd. We get a selection of eight short films- with runtimes between ten & eighteen minutes- from directors Jim Cummings & PJ McCabe. And short docs regarding the two going to Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and 2017. The finished release takes in an Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Anton Bitel. As well as a reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options, and a limited slipcover.
Once again with this release, the folks at Arrow Video have scored another very distinctive and rewarding genre film. With as always from Arrow- a good selection of extras. I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for the next project from directors Cummings & McCabe.