Review: 'Test Pattern' is a quietly moving look at sexual assault and its aftermath, and an assured debut for director Shatara Michelle Ford
In its quietly devastating way, first-time writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford’s drama “Test Pattern” cuts to the heart of an important topic — sexual assault and the further assaults suffered through the system.
Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) has just started her new job, as development director for the Austin Humane Society — a far cry from the dull-but-lucrative corporate job she had when she met her devoted boyfriend, Evan (Will Brill), a tattoo artist. It should be mentioned, because it comes up later, that Renesha is black and Evan is white.
After her first day at her new job, Renesha goes to meet her best friend Amber (Gail Bean) for a drink — and Evan begs off going along, sensing Amber is in need of a little girls’ night commiseration.
While Renesha and Amber are talking at the bar, a couple of guys — Mike (Drew Fuller) and Chris (Ben Levin) — start chatting them up, and are soon buying champagne for everyone.
More booze and a gummy edible later, Renesha is barely staying on her feet. Mike offers to drive her home, and instead we’re in the opening scene of “Promising Young Woman” — without Renesha snapping out of it before it’s too late.
The next morning, Renesha is reunited with Evan, who sets a goal for them: Go to a clinic or hospital to get a rape kit and examination for Renesha. This leads to a Kafkaesque nightmare of health care bureaucracy and antiseptic waiting rooms, one to which Evan responds with more outward anger than Renesha does.
Renesha’s resignation seems to be the point, as Ford makes us bear silent witness to Renesha being victimized a second time by an unfeeling system. It’s quite late in the story, long after Renesha has stopped talking to the increasingly agitated Evan, that anyone — in this case, the nurse (Amani Starnes) who administers the forensic exam — speaks to her like a human being who’s just gone through a horrific trauma.
Ford allows some room to explore Evan’s emotions, predominantly the anger he feels that he can’t fix this, without taking away from Renesha’s story. And the movie includes ample flashbacks, to show how Renesha and Evan became a couple, and what’s at stake if an unspeakable event should shatter their beautiful life together.
In her brave filmmaking debut, Ford and Hall collaborate on a vast catalog of Renesha’s conflicting emotions — shame, anger, frustration at the system and at Evan for not dropping the matter — that inform each steps she takes to make sense out of a senseless act. “Test Pattern” is an intense experience, and an indicator that we should keep an eye on Ford when her next movie comes along.
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‘Test Pattern’
★★★1/2
Available starting Friday, February 19, for streaming on the SLFS@Home virtual cinema. Not rated, but probably R for sexual violence, discussion of rape, and language. Running time: 83 minutes.