My final 2021 guests this week on the Deep Focus podcast are Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe, the co-directors, co-writers, and co-stars of IFC Films’ “The Beta Test,” Yes, this conversation is overdue. “The Beta Test” came out in late November, but it is available on all digital platforms to rent now, and let’s just say as a bit of a tease: you will see “The Beta Test” on our forthcoming list of the Best Films Of 2021 That You Didn’t See running in early January.
That shouldn’t be misinterpreted as a backhanded compliment or a consolation prize, but “The Beta Test” is terrific but has been criminally overlooked this year, and we’re certainly hoping to change that.
In my review, if I can quote myself, I described the film as an “anxiety horror film,” which makes sense if you know the anxiety-riddled work of Cummings, who has quickly become the indie maestro of hilariously twitchy, cringey anxiety indies. Specifically, “The Beta Test” is about a married Hollywood agent—played by Cummings—who receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes entangled in a big web of deceit, lies, and twist and turns. PJ McCabe co-stars Cummings Hollywood agent best friend.
Cummings made a big splash on the indie scene with 2018’s SXSW winner, “Thunder Road,” about a cop going through a divorce, who loses his mom, whose life is falling apart and has to find the will to get through his emotional collapse, be a human and be there for his young daughter. It’s hilarious, awkward, but full of deeply flowing empathy too. Cumming gave that same vein a genre twist with 2020’s murder mystery, “The Wolf of Snowy Hollow,” and now “The Beta Test” this year, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of 2021.
I see it as quote-unquote “anxiety horror” because it’s told from the perspective of frightened men, freaking out in the age of #MeToo, consequences and the cultural ground shifting around them. Their hackles are up, and they’re worried because the privilege they’ve grown accustomed to has dried up, and they can’t get away with murder any longer—literally. So that’s the backdrop of the movie before anything even starts. Then, of course, there’s this mysterious letter, an anonymous sexual encounter, and the threat of consequences becomes hilariously rich fodder for this era. It’s more than just that too. While a dark, funny, biting satire about our cultural climate, with a lot on its minded about toxic masculinity and cancel culture, “The Beta Test” is all about skewering Hollywood, douchebag agents, the nefarious practice about Hollywood packaging, which they explain in detail in this podcast, and more.
In our lengthy chat, Cumming and McCabe also teased up at least two more projects that they are writing and are incredibly confident and jazzed about. As Cumming put it, one is a “Victorian horror-comedy, buddy romance.” McCabe added, “You thought ‘The Beta Test’ had a lot of genres; this one is ten times bigger.”
Cummings was done right bold about the entire ambitious project. “It feels like [the children’s story] ‘Wind In the Willows’ about this kind of inter-racial friendship in 1895, and it’s gonna be made a bit like ‘There Will Be Blood,’ and ‘Wind In The Willows.’ It’s a masterpiece,” he joked with manic confidence. “It’s profound and beautiful, it’s a ghost story, and I think it could be one of the best films ever made.”
They also cite David Gordon Green as a hero, an ally, friend, and someone with an eclectic career they would like to try and emulate (Cummings even has a small role in this year’s “Halloween Kills”). I think this is one is a great, in-depth, lengthy chat, you’ll come out of it true believers in Cummings and McCabe if you already aren’t, and hopefully, if you haven’t seen it, it will convince you to go out there and seek out “The Beta Test.” Check out the entire conversation below.
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