Behemoth!, 2026.
Directed by Tony Gilroy.
Starring Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, Jobeth Williams, Margarita Levieva, Hank Azaria and Will Arnett.
SYNOPSIS:
A gifted cellist, Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. Music, which has been the constant, all-consuming river of his life, begins to carry Alex on an adventure that will change him forever.
Tony Gilroy swaps the Star Wars senate for the symphony orchestra in this wonderfully cinematic fable about a fictional cellist attempting to outrun his past and present as he returns home to Los Angeles to take stock of his legacy.
Behemoth! refers to the title of a blockbuster film that is being scored at the Fox Studios where Pedro Pascal’s Alex Serian has a gigging job as a cellist. Secured thanks to his reputation from a 20-year career, one born out from his late father being a renowned musician (Hank Azaria), we hop around different movements from the symphony of his life, as the music from the recording sessions are weaved ingeniously with the on-screen action.
Point in case being the opening, in which Alex flees from a messy relationship with Olivia Wilde’s Carol, the wife of one of the benefactors of the Chicago orchestra he plays for. As she stalks the corridors and stairwells looking for him, he attempts to stay one step ahead. Gilroy’s Bourne-scripting duties paying off as the sequence plays out like a thrilling chase, and best off all is the fact it’s all orchestrated to the music that that Alex’s group has been playing. It’s exciting, clever filmmaking, and it all culminates in one of those cliched snowy street scenes that only the movies can pull off, as the camera cranes up and Olivia Wilde is stood looking like a classic Hollywood Femme Fatale with a shard of light illuminating her. What a crescendo.
Don’t stand and applaud just yet though, because there are multiple instances in which this technique is used, and if you’re a lover of film scores and soundtracks, then Behemoth! will make you giddy with joy.
The story is as familiar as an Alan Silvestri flourish. A burdened genius with a wandering eye, apathetic attitude and daddy issues. It sounds like the plot of an Adam Sandler movie. Instead we get Pedro Pascal delivering one his finest performances since Narcos. Nuanced, quiet, and with something unsaid sitting gently beneath the surface, which only threatens to manifest with the music, much to the annoyance of his female companions who accuse him of an emotional detachment. His is a completely natural turn, one that’s free of the kind of grandstanding or showmanship you might be expecting, and its impact is so much better for that.
Tonally it’s a bit like the Cellist version of Bradley Cooper’s criminally underseen stand-up drama Is This Thing On? The conversations feel real, the people also. It also helps that Will Arnett is in this too as Alex’s brother. The only actor that feels like their doing a solo is Olivia Wilde, who’s terrific as the spurned lover, but it’s a big performance that’s played for laughs, when there’s also a sadness behind the way she acts that could have been explored beyond her being a punchline for a couple of character arcs. It’s Sorry, Baby writer-director Eva Victor who makes the biggest impression with her limited screentime, both on the story and the way in which her character is used to disseminate Alex’s personality to the audience.
Gilroy, whose last feature was 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, directs with the steady hand of a conductor. The film flows between timelines and moods seamlessly, with no sections that drag, and it all builds to a cacophonous series of revelations and resolutions, which might be lacking in the emotional oomph that the script is going for, but they’re all narratively satisfying and in step with the character’s journey.
So many of the most indelible movie moments are linked to the unforgettable scores, and while Behemoth! can’t quite leave a mark of its own, it’s still a triumphant celebration of those who do, with terrific music, and a never-better Pedro Pascal commanding your attention.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter
