Tales of angsty alpha males who see the light are a cinematic sacred cow, yet lacking in clarity of vision or a cohesive world, "The Beta Test" comes out looking as confused as its antihero.

| Dec 7, 2021

It is a really great Hollywood satire that I found amusing.

| Nov 6, 2021

Cummings and co-director/co-star PJ McCabe are more adept at maintaining tone than a lot of better-known filmmakers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 5, 2021

An unstable and unfocused satire that dabbles haphazardly in issues of masculinity, temptation, digital identity, and reformed workplaces but does so with a brio that keeps it on edge.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2021

The results won't help McCabe and Cummings land any well-paying sellout gigs any time soon. But if being a Hollywood insider is anything like it appears in this movie, is that really such a loss?

| Original Score: B | Nov 5, 2021

"The Beta Test" hinges on Cummings' magnetically deranged turn.

| Nov 5, 2021

Cummings is a voice all his own, and in "The Beta Test" he makes sure that voice is heard.

| Original Score: B | Nov 4, 2021

One of the more unusual and exciting independent films of the season.

| Nov 4, 2021

The main targets here are clear as day, and they're lined up cleanly in the crosshairs to be hit square in the chest.

| Nov 4, 2021

Would have been stronger if they'd honed their furious focus even further. Instead, it feels like two films mashed together - a shaky thriller built on a vague social-media theme, set inside an incisive and genuinely disturbing industry satire.

| Nov 3, 2021

In a film that barely has a grasp over its own hare-brained conspiracy and often feels like an extension of the mental breakdown that its protagonist might be suffering, Cummings' performance adds a key measure of consistency.

| Original Score: B | Nov 2, 2021

Underneath the film's seeming casualness is an astute portrait of alcoholism, as well as a knowing glimpse of how micro tensions affect macro power plays, from pissing contests between men to sexual violations.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 2, 2021

Whilst occasionally breathless to the point of exhausting, there's nothing second-rate aboutThe Beta Test, asharp satire on the film industry that really packs a punch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 14, 2021

The good bits are sufficiently impressive it wouldn't be fair to hold its flaws against it too much. We mustn't be greedy for perfection.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 11, 2021

The movie's imagining of business plans built on the massive harvesting of personal data is only half-convincing. But that's no big obstacle to the story it tells...

| Sep 30, 2021

A brutally unflattering satire which wields its humour of discomfort like a scalpel.

| Jun 12, 2021

The film's elements don't mesh as seamlessly as they should have... Yet the movie, at its best, can hold you in its grip.

| Mar 6, 2021