Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!” has screened at the New York Film Festival, and reviews are mostly positive, with some mixed-to-negative sprinkled as well. This won’t be best picture nominated.
Outlets that have weighed in so far include IndieWire(B+), The Guardian (2/5), Variety (mixed), Screen (mixed), THR (negative), Slant (3/4), Next Best Picture (7/10), The Daily Beast (positive) and TheWrap (positive). Social media reactions can be found below.
Gilroy's "Behemoth!" is a character-driven, formally ambitious chronicle spanning two decades in the life of cellist Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), who moves back to Los Angeles to compose music for films. The story slowly reveals why he left and why he came back, and it unfolds through a nonlinear, music-driven structure in which musical cues trigger flashbacks across the last 20 years.
Gilroy hired a staggering nine composers for the score: Michael Abels ("Get Out"), Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino ("The Incredibles"), James Newton Howard ("The Hunger Games"), Henry Jackman ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier"), Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts ("Andor") and Alan Silvestri ("Back to the Future," "Forrest Gump"). Each one wrote music for a different fictional film within the movie, and because Academy rules cap a score at three credited composers, the score will likely be ineligible for an Oscar.
What makes the film especially distinctive is that it keeps cutting between the orchestra and Alex's real life. The score isn't just accompaniment. It works as an active narrative layer, almost as if Alex is watching a version of his own life while composing and conducting its most pivotal moments.
"Behemoth!" is an extremely talky, low-plot character drama. Alex is a gifted but emotionally empty cellist who drifts from orchestra to orchestra over two decades, cycling through affairs with women who get attached to him while he stays detached and restless. The one relationship that seems to matter is with Nadia, a longtime lover whose death prompts Alex, in the present-day timeline, to reconnect with people from her life. Meanwhile, he's been hired to score a movie despite being well past his professional peak.
This is a portrait of narcissism, aging, sex, memory and artistic emptiness, told through long conversations and emotional drift rather than big events. It also apparently has a great ending. Pascal's performance is being singled out by many who've seen it. The cast also includes Olivia Wilde (apparently a scene-stealer), Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Will Arnett and Matthew Lillard.
Worth remembering: Gilroy launched his directing career with one of the strongest debuts of the 21st century, "Michael Clayton" (2007), before following it with two lesser efforts, "Duplicity" (2009) and "The Bourne Legacy" (2012). "Behemoth!" is his first film in 14 years, and it arrives four years after his biggest critical and commercial triumph, the Disney+ series "Andor."
"Behemoth!" is Tony Gilroy's first film in 14 years, and it comes nearly two decades after his debut, "Michael Clayton." It also arrives four years after the critical and commercial triumph of his Disney+ series "Andor."