By George & Josh Bate
After masterminding the greatest Star Wars series of all time and one of the greatest television shows in history, Tony Gilroy turns his sights to a decidedly more intimate and grounded drama with the kind of soul, complexity, sophistication of dialogue only Gilroy could deliver.
Screening at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, Behemoth! stars Pedro Pascal as Alex Serian, a renowned cellist who returns to his home town of Los Angeles after years of building out his career in symphonies around the world. As Alex adjusts to his new life as a cellist composing film scores, a series of overlapping flashbacks reveal the complicated layers of his life.
The groundedness and seeming simplicity of Behemoth!’s premise belies the complexity of its narrative structuring. Gilroy plays with non-linearity quite a bit (perhaps a bit too much) in a story that chronicles various pivotal points in Alex’s journey leading up to his return to L.A. These flashbacks encompass the majority of the movie and, as they appear out of order and are only distinguished as flashbacks by how much distracting de-aging makeup Pascsl is wearing, can be somewhat disorienting at times.
But, in trademark Gilroy fashion, Behemoth! doesn’t spoon feed anything to its audience. The handful of times in which audience members may need a moment or two to orient where exactly a given scene takes place in the timeline of Alex’s life ultimately do little to detract from the film. That’s because there is something undeniably mesmerizing about Gilroy’s film. Even with a somewhat aimless plot, filled with a number of moving parts and characters, it proves difficult to take one’s eyes off the screen, such is Gilroy’s mastery of dialogue and scene construction. Each scene or collection of scenes that encompass a flashback feel like a self-sufficient short film, one with a clear beginning, middle, end, and purpose. In this sense, the lack of overarching instigating incident and traditional, forward momentum-propelled plot are hardly issues. Rather, they are indicative of a film willing to take its time, meander when necessary, and steep in the tormented psyche of its protagonist.
The protagonist in question is played by Pedro Pascal, who delivers some of the most nuanced work of his career in the film. From The Mandalorian to The Last of Us, Pascal has a reputation for playing soft-spoken paternal figures, with an undercurrent of warmth disguised by how hardened and capable he really is. In Behemoth!, Pascal retains his trademark warmth, although it is buried underneath decades of anguish. Very little of Alex’s inner psyche is spelled out in dialogue, leaving Pascal to convey the rich, complicated history of his character with the most subtle of facial expressions, body language, and line delivery. It’s not a showy performance by any stretch; rather, it’s one that exhibits the trust Gilroy places in his leading man to craft such an authentic, lived protagonist without excessive amounts of dialogue at his disposal.
The dialogue that is spoken, however, retains all the sensibilities of what one would expect from the writer of Michael Clayton, The Devil’s Advocate, and Andor. Gilroy has a reputation for sharp, sophisticated, and pragmatic dialogue that possesses both efficiency and poetic flow. Few screenwriters in history have a command of dialogue the way Gilroy has, and he once again ensures that he flexes this muscle in his latest work.
With Pascal in the leading role, Behemoth! has a range of important supporting players. Will Arnett plays his estranged, yet similarly musically inclined brother, who has recently started a podcast, on which he discusses the history of their father (Hank Azaria), another accomplished musician. Olivia Wilde plays his erratic ex-girlfriend from Chicago, who refuses to accept that their relationship is over. Eva Victor plays another ex-girlfriend and former music colleague throughout various flashbacks. Kaya Ralls plays a young musician who Alex takes under his wing in the present day. All of these characters (and more) exist in the story primarily to serve the journey of Pascal’s protagonist, and to deliver Gilroy’s delectable dialogue. This is hardly an issue, except in the case of Victor, whose role in the film proves critical to Alex’s emotional journey yet it remains perplexingly underexplored in the story.
Next to Pascal as a co-lead, above the aforementioned heavy-hitters that comprise the supporting cast, is the music itself. Behemoth! bolsters a whopping six credited composers, far more than the average feature film. James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Brandon Roberts, Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, Henry Jackman, and Nami Melumad all contribute music to the film, a testament to the breadth and caliber of compositions that accompany Alex’s journey. As Alex plays cello for film scores, the different composers score scenes for each film he works on, music that often serves as the backdrop for flashback sequences. It’s a creative utilization of music that allows the film to take on different identities as it progresses through key moments of Alex’s life. While the music differs in style and energy, it is unified by its sheer quality and the prominence with which it plays in the film. And, as Alex’s profession and family background position him around the world of music, music plays a substantive storytelling role as much as it plays a stylistic and tonal one.
While lacking much in the way of traditional narrative structure for much of its runtime, Behemoth! gains momentum in a more focused third act. Tying together various elements from the preceding flashbacks into the present day story allows Gilroy’s film to finally access a degree of resonant emotion it previously seemed unwilling, or unable, to do. The culmination of Alex’s journey in the third act, punctuated by a superbly performed and written scene with Pascal and young actress Alexa Swinton, tugs at the strings of the heart just as much as it tugs at the strings of Alex’s cello and punctuates a beautiful and appropriately understated final portion. If the film had dedicated more time to fleshing out the background of specific character in the flashbacks and their relationship with Alex, Behemoth! may have ascended to tear-worthy emotional heights. Instead, however, the film concludes on a stirring, but not quite profound, note.
VERDICT: 8/10
Screening at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, Behemoth! finds Tony Gilroy follow up Andor with a more intimate and grounded drama that possesses the specific brand of soul, complexity, and sophistication of dialogue only Gilroy can deliver. Even with a somewhat aimless plot, filled with a number of moving parts and characters, the film proves difficult to take one’s eyes off the screen, such is Gilroy’s mastery of dialogue and scene construction. Pedro Pascal delivers some of the most nuanced work of his career, conveying the rich, complicated history of his character with the most subtle of facial expressions, body language, and line delivery. The sharp, sophisticated, and pragmatic dialogue has both efficiency and poetic flow, while the music serves as a co-lead, playing as much a substantive and narrative role as it does a stylistic and tonal one. Although the film’s non-linear structure can be somewhat disorienting and a key relationship remains perplexingly underexplored, Behemoth! gains momentum in a more focused third act, culminating in a stirring, appropriately understated final portion. Ultimately, Gilroy’s film may not reach tear-worthy emotional heights, but it strikes a beautiful, if not quite profound, note.
Behemoth! is in theaters on December 4, 2026, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.