THE BETA TEST review

Weeks away from marrying his long time fiancee, Hollywood agent Jordan (Jim Cummings) receives a mysterious purple envelope, inviting him to a no strings attached sexual encounter that will fulfil all of his deepest desires. Jordan gives in to the temptation to explore a darker side of himself, but when he's contacted by blackmailers he starts to question everything and everyone around him, including the loyalty of his best friend and business parter PJ (co-director PJ McCabe) and fiancee Caroline (Virginia Newcomb).

Jim Cummings made a big impact back in 2018 with his first feature film, the tragi-comic and heartwarming Thunder Road, putting in the effort to make sure he was generating plenty of positive buzz on Film Twitter by turning on his natural charm at Q&A's, and touring his film around as many cinemas in the UK that would have him. Thankfully Cummings is no shyster and Thunder Road was one of the very best films of that year, and with his one man movie studio attitude he became an easy figure to root for in a manner that mirrored his role as a down on his luck cop in Thunder Road. Since then he's delved into genre fare with last year's The Wolf of Snow Hollow (where Cummings again played a cop), and now is back with The Beta Test; a much darker, scuzzier, sexier film, taking on the role of a Hollywood agent who lets the temptation to dive into the underbelly of Tinseltown get the better of him.

On the verge of landing a career defining deal with some executives from China, Jordan is suddenly coming to the realisation that he's part of a dying breed, and that his contribution to the filmmaking process is becoming increasingly redundant. Although he'd like to fool himself into thinking he's not like the old school of toxic wannabe moguls that came before him (Jordan claims things have changed "since Harvey"), it doesn't take much for him to allow his darker impulses to take over and then to become a lying, manipulative maniac when he becomes increasingly desperate and paranoid. When he thinks he hears his assistant Jaclyn (Jacqueline Doke who also appeared in Thunder Road) repeat something lewd he'd specified on the check box form that came in his purple envelope (top, sub, dom, face-sitting, etc), he cruelly admonishes her, much to her befuddlement.

As modern paranoia thrillers go, The Beta Test might not quite rival the mindfuck nature of David Fincher's The Game and Jordan mercifully stops short of going full Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, but the DNA of those films is definitely here, and there's tremendous rewatch value as Cummings's nervous comic energy shines through as Jordan can no longer hide the truth that he's something of a desperate fool. A proponent of the "fake it til you make it" school of thought, there's an exchange the film repeats with varying results, as Jordan tries to manipulate people into providing him with the information he needs by bluffing his way through, and then claiming he's an undercover cop when all as fails. It's played for all its comic absurdity by Cummings, who can do flustered incompetence like no-one else. Jordan is King of the bullshitters, and by far the most damaged and toxic man he's played so far (he barely wavers in deciding to cheat on his fiancee), but there's enough moments of comedy in his performance that you can't help but root for him, albeit with us asking ourselves why in a post-Harvey world.

Occupying the roles of lead actor, editor, co-screenwriter and co-director of The Beta Test (sharing some responsibilities with collaborator PJ McCabe, who also stars in as supporting role), it's quite possible that Cummings has encountered some men like Jordan in his career on the outskirts of Hollywood, although he's one of the new school of independently minded producers who's calling that entire method of filmmaking into question. With a wider scope than Thunder Road but still produced on a small budget with a skeleton crew, non name actors, and multi-tasking polymaths making the creative decisions, The Beta Test further expands on Cummings's message to Hollywood that filmmaking can be done differently, but also serves as a sly 'fuck you' to the people who engineered it to serve themselves.

It's not without fault, opening with a jarring scene of grisly violence that will have you thinking the pendulum has swung too far away from the heartwarming charm of Thunder Road in an effort to show scriptwriting range (not that that film didn't also include moments of unhinged mania - in fact, they're undoubtedly the most talked about scenes), but it's an outlier that isn't indicative of the rest of the film and therefore doesn't completely gel with it. The Beta Test is a colder, more emotionally detached film than his previous work, but when there's a camera on Cummings and he's letting his character's neuroses spill out, he's doing what he does best, and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Verdict

4/5

The Beta Test is in cinemas now.

CHARLIE SAYS review

 American Psycho and I Shot Andy Warhol director Mary Harron's latest film follows the journey of Leslie Van Houten from disillusioned teenage runaway to key member of the Manson Family, depicting the infamous murders of July and August 1969 and her later incarceration.

When Quentin Tarantino's latest, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was first announced, the biggest outcry was that given the backdrop of the film was the Manson Family murders, the supposedly accidental poor timing of the release date (50 years to the day of the infamous murders) quickly saw a shift in date occur, but still within weeks of the anniversary. Well, also released almost 50 years to the date of the Manson Family murders is Mary Harron's Charlie Says, also depicting the aforementioned murders, but from the point of view of the murderers. To be fair to this film (and to Tarantino's), it has been 50 years so of course there is going to be an increased interest in the subject, and as we'll get to the murders here are treated with a modicum of respect.

Harron's film's focus is on one of the members of Manson's family, Leslie Van Houten, played here by Skins and Game of Thrones actress Hannah Murray. A disillusioned drifter who found her way onto Manson's ranch by hitching a ride with some of his family members, she is portrayed as an innocent in the world, finding guidance and a place to belong in Charlie's world. Murray, playing a character roughly ten years younger than her age, has an eternally youthful face, and with that a childlike innocence, rightly or wrongly, automatically aligns with her character. Murray is a good actress and is the backbone to this film, but her casting comes with the danger that the culpability of the real Leslie gets diminished to a degree. The women who followed Charles Manson have always been categorised as weak minded sociopaths, committing deadly crimes on his command, so there is a danger that a film about their lives would humanise them and detract from the murders they committed. What's admirable about Harron's film is that it tries to balance this by offering a new vantage point, focussing as much on their jail term after the murders as their time in the lead up to August 1969.

In these post murder scenes the film divides its focus between Murray's Leslie and teacher Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever), assigned to provide college courses to the three women excluded from the general population and confined to the Special Security Unit of the prison. As an outsider looking in, Faith tries to understand why these women committed such horrific crimes, and why Manson is able to keep his grip on them even after all contact is broken, the women collectively shaving their heads after Manson "spoke" to them in their cells. It's a strange, not altogether fluid transition to have our audience focus shift from Leslie in the pre-murder scenes to Karlene in the post-murder scenes, but Wever is as solid a performer as always and delivers a tonic to the hippie madness of almost every other character. 

The focus of the film never shifts to Manson, keeping him pontificating to his followers and playing his guitar in his long desired wish to be a famous musician. The film explores this side of his persona through his association with The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson (an uncanny James Trevanna-Brown), a frequent visitor to Manson's ranch who negotiated the use of one of Manson's songs on a Beach Boys album. Manson is played quite convincingly by Matt Smith, the one time Dr Who and star of The Crown, still looking for that role that will provide his Hollywood breakthrough. Smith has always provided committed performances, and he's no different here. Although the film never puts him front and centre, Manson exists as a spectre, moving from cool hippie beatnik to a violent manipulator of women, talking of their "tiny female brains" and plotting his Helter Skelter race war. Smith is at times charming and terrifying, and provides the film with a truly loathsome Manson, which for all the interest in the members of his 'family' is the real draw for this film.

The Manson Family murders are, for want of a better word, legendary, and Harron's film walks a fine line between glamourising the murders and providing a thrilling, entertaining story. The Tate/LaBianca murders are shockingly realised, but via short sharp shocks of violence and shots of the aftermath that, barring one scene, avoid the graphic splatter of blood.

A curiously structured film that is worth seeing for its core performances, if Tarantino's film has you wanting to know more about the Manson Family murders and those involved in the dark side of a Hollywood legend, this film is a thoughtful, unsensational attempt to deliver that.

Verdict

3.5/5