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Test Pattern

Play trailer 1:41 Poster for Test Pattern 2021 1h 22m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
96% Tomatometer 51 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Young couple Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and Evan (Will Brill) negotiate a variety of questions, judgments, and other comments on their interracial relationship. Yet, the most significant test for the strength of their bond arrives in the form of a brutal sexual assault Renesha suffers. A frantic Evan must then drive the distressed Renesha across the city in hopes of securing a rape kit, encountering further prejudice along the way. Written and directed by Shatara Michelle Ford. Gail Bean, Drew Fuller, and Ben Levin co-star.
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Test Pattern

Test Pattern

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Critics Consensus

Test Pattern surveys the aftermath of a woman's assault -- and uncovers the many ways in which personal trauma can be compounded by systemic injustice.

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Critics Reviews

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K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone Feb 25, 2021
4.5/5
This is a film that takes a slim setup, all of it predicated on difference, and runs with it, renders it into something as intellectually persuasive as it is dramatically refined. Go to Full Review
Richard Brody The New Yorker Feb 22, 2021
Reveals, with fiercely focussed observation, the combined breakdown of public institutions and private life. Go to Full Review
Claudia Puig FilmWeek (LAist) Feb 20, 2021
This is an important film. It's perhaps even more than timely -- it's urgent. Go to Full Review
Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Feb 13, 2024
Examines not just the broken medical system in Texas, but also toxic masculinity, the murky waters of consent, and the power dynamics in interracial couples - especially between Black women and white men. Go to Full Review
Mitchell Beaupre Awards Radar Sep 22, 2022
4/4
Everything in Test Pattern comes back to that idea of authenticity, exemplified by the neorealist approach that Ford takes to putting us through the motions with these characters. Go to Full Review
Marlow Stern The Daily Beast Jan 4, 2022
Those words by late civil-rights leader Malcolm X reverberate throughout filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford's white-knuckle debut... Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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keven Q @kevenquinlan 4 hrs ago Well, the chemistry of protagonists is great. Then it swirls into this kind of esoteric discourse/thought experiment on rape. It made the movie kinda suck. I don't know if what occurred would even be considered rape and I find it telling that it's mentioned as being brutal. It WASN'T brutal- it was boozy and foggy and no ones even sure what happened. It scares me b/c people get wasted and have sex and that guy wouldn't have never known she didn't want to? It makes you want to break out a consent form before the kissing even starts and that's not what humanity should be about. She made the decisions that occurred and the man isn't a mind reader. Figures that this is interpreted this way in this day and age. Thank god I didn't have to go through any of it. Not a keeper. See more Mar 1, 2022 Interesting for sure, and pretty strong for a debut feature. I didn't buy the central relationship at the beginning of the film, but I did start to towards the end. Really harrowing subject matter for this one and it presents it in a pretty thoughtful way. The biggest issue is the music. It's able to draw so much tension out of moments that don't have any of it at all but I find so many of the needle drops to be so off-kilter and confusing. It feels like some of these songs were selected to show contrast and nothing more. Not a bad intent, but my goodness Tchaikovski's "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker is such an inappropriate song choice to me for this attempting-to-be-eye-opening film about sexual assault. Had no clue why it was in this movie, let alone the specific scene it was in. Seemed like it only existed for the smash cut away from it, and that isn't motivation to me enough to put in a song that "beautiful" in a film that is anything but. I'd love to hear or see any other interpretations, but I just found the music choices to consistently take me out of the film and completely lose me. Very competent director that I'm sure to check out the next work from, just hope to see the music strategies either changed or reflected more appropriately next time. See more Oct 12, 2021 I loved the concept of the movie, however, I think that it could have been more to the evidence of the rape. Like why didn't she ask questions if the officer asked for surveillance of the club. The ending was horrible. See more Cave W @RT65596414 Apr 20, 2021 The agenda overrode the characters and the drama. It was so obviously an Issue Movie that it forgot to be a good movie. See more Mar 27, 2021 Waste of time and money. See more Mar 23, 2021 Finally, an indie movie with social relevance that understands film making is more than sticking a camera in the corner while two people talk. See more Read all reviews
Test Pattern

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Movie Info

Synopsis Young couple Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and Evan (Will Brill) negotiate a variety of questions, judgments, and other comments on their interracial relationship. Yet, the most significant test for the strength of their bond arrives in the form of a brutal sexual assault Renesha suffers. A frantic Evan must then drive the distressed Renesha across the city in hopes of securing a rape kit, encountering further prejudice along the way. Written and directed by Shatara Michelle Ford. Gail Bean, Drew Fuller, and Ben Levin co-star.
Director
Shatara Michelle Ford
Producer
Shatara Michelle Ford, Pin-Chun Liu, Yu-Hao Su
Screenwriter
Shatara Michelle Ford
Distributor
Kino Lorber
Production Co
120E Films
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 12, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 29, 2021
Runtime
1h 22m
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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