The Beta Test (2021)

The Beta Test is a slick, nervy little pressure-cooker of a movie that turns modern dating, Hollywood hustle, and data-driven manipulation into a darkly funny nightmare you can’t quite laugh off. Jim Cummings plays its twitchy, self-justifying agent like a man sprinting on a treadmill that keeps speeding up, and the film’s satire lands because it’s rooted in recognizable vanity, paranoia, and entitlement. The vibe is part erotic mystery, part cringe comedy, part creeping dread, with sharp dialogue and a steadily tightening sense that every “private” choice leaves a digital fingerprint. It’s not for the squeamish—there’s explicit language, sexual content, and bursts of violence—but if you like your thrillers mean, smart, and uncomfortably current, this one bites hard and doesn’t let go.

The Beta Test is aiming for a slick, paranoid satire of Hollywood vanity and modern data-driven manipulation, wrapped in a neo-noir thriller with bursts of dark comedy. When it works, the nervous energy and Jim Cummings’ tightly-wound performance give it a sweaty, anxious momentum, and the premise is genuinely creepy. But the film can feel more frantic than focused, with a world that doesn’t always cohere and a tone that ricochets between funny, nasty, and “what am I watching?” in a way that may come off exhausting rather than thrilling. If you want a clean, satisfying mystery or a consistent horror-thriller vibe, this might frustrate you; if you’re up for an abrasive, talky spiral with some graphic violence and sexual content, you’ll likely get more out of it.