If eyes are a window to the soul, then music is a portal to it. You can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to and how they respond to it: the jams that make them laugh, the ballads that make them cry, the anthems that make them cheer, the noise that makes them wince. Emotions that are buried deep within you can suddenly appear at the mere opening notes of anything from a short song to a sprawling symphony. Take Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), an esteemed cellist and child prodigy who, upon performing a driving piece of spy thriller score during a recording session in Los Angeles, is transported back to his tenure at a Chicago symphony and his own daring escape from a fiercely driven ex-lover. As he performs on another score during an entirely different session, this time accompanied by a harpist, he can’t help but think of his own mother, a harpist herself, and her tragic battle with Alzheimer’s. Even just hearing—not even watching—a YouTube video of him performing as a child on The Johnny Carson Show, he becomes visibly emotional and, though he denies it, upset. He can’t help but think about his father, his troubled childhood, and the years of pain he has yet to overcome.
Serian is a fitting protagonist for Behemoth!, the latest film from writer-director Tony Gilroy after a staggering fourteen-year absence behind the director’s chair, in that it is, first and foremost, a movie about music. You could call Behemoth! many things – a family drama, a character study, maybe even a darkly comic tragedy – but none of them would best represent what it feels like to experience Gilroy’s movie, which plays less like a movie and more like a symphony. The story moves in and out of time like movements present variations on a theme; it’s fractured, at times even confusing, but, if you embrace the journey and have the patience to let yourself go to experiencing each variation, everything comes together by the bracing final notes. This is all to say that, for those who enjoy music, Behemoth! is a moving but lukewarm drama that leaves far too much to the imagination. For those who need music, who live and breathe music, who can recount entire memories from a single chord progression or key change, Behemoth! is a soaring cinematic experience that is a testament to how the combination of movies and music can excavate people’s inner lives and the broken souls they carry with them.
The most obvious way Behemoth! accomplishes this is through its central conceit. The story follows Serian, who, after stints in a variety of regional symphony orchestras, has returned to his hometown of Los Angeles to care for his ailing mother. While there, he returns to performing as a session musician for film scores, a welcome homecoming for his colleagues that also carries massive baggage. Throughout the film, we watch Serian hop from session to session, playing an array of scores that each bring back unique memories of people and places in his life that, for better or for worse, shaped him into the man he is today. As such, Behemoth! notably features the music of nine different composers, known as “The Behemoth! Collective,” so that every different gig Serian plays feels like its own unique beast (pun intended). In theory, it’s a thrilling concept for any film score junkie (including this critic), just scene after scene of the industry’s greatest composers, from James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games) to Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Speed Racer) to Michael Abels (Get Out, Us), each contributing their unique skill sets to a tapestry of gorgeous compositions, each with their own unique style, tone, and color.
However, the Collective in and of itself is but a selling point for Behemoth! in comparison to how the music is integrated into the film. In fact, the nimble musicality of Gilroy’s film extends beyond merely the Collective but across the entire film’s soundtrack, which features a wide variety of orchestral pieces, jazz standards, and even electronic music. It is quite sonically dense, yet every inclusion feels deeply purposeful, whether it is scoring a specific sequence of memory or even just alluding to the life and personality of a character who is largely off-screen. For those who have musicians in their life, from friends to family past or present, they will instantly recognize how the music of the film captures the character’s emotions and unravels them in a way they yearn to understand but simply do not have the tools to unpack. Unsurprisingly, Alex Serian is quite messy; underneath his dashing good looks and charming personality is a life spent under psychological duress from abusive parents and an unflinching devotion to craft that has defined his life since childhood. To spoil specifics would be to ruin the film’s subtle discoveries but, needless to say, the film’s inability to stick too closely to any particular character or relationship is not merely a side effect of the music.
Alex Serian is a subtly layered character with plenty of repressed emotions to slowly unearth, and star Pedro Pascal is up to the task. In what may be his greatest performance yet put to screen, Pascal presents Serian’s arrested development with a beautifully acted interiority. It helps that Pascal’s eyes could write a symphony all on their own, but his talent for capturing understated yet meaningful facial expressions and variable physicality makes for a fully realized portrait. It also goes without saying that his commitment to training on cello paid off; Pascal’s command over the instrument is astounding. The entire supporting ensemble is wonderful as well, most notably Olivia Wilde is an admittedly one-note but still breathtakingly fierce and hilariously sharp performance that may be her funniest of the year, and that’s saying something in a year with gutbusters like I Want Your Sex and The Invite. Will Arnett, as Serian’s brother, provides another assured dramatic turn after his own impressively performed arrested development in Is This Thing On?, while Eva Victor continues to prove they are one of the industry’s most promising talents in their role as one of Serian’s romantic partners – though most will agree Victor’s sheer talent outshines the minimal screen time they have in this film. Big things come in small packages, but could we not have given Victor a slightly bigger sandbox to play with?
Reuniting with previous collaborators such as cinematographer Damián García and editor (and brother) John Gilroy, Tony Gilroy’s filmmaking here is lean and clean. Channeling his penchant for tightly-wound tension and nimble camera movement without the stylistic frills of his previous projects, the writer-director’s camera glides through Serian’s life and the spaces he inhabits, matching both the music’s dramatic velocity and his own character’s inability to stay still for too long. It helps that the world he is capturing is so deeply authentic that he doesn’t have to do much in-frame to sell it; shot on location in Los Angeles, California, including on the very soundstages whose history and legacy so deeply color the characters in the film. The subtle nods to the industry in the film’s production design, top to bottom, immediately ground you in the film’s niche industry to the point that it feels familiar and, at times, even cozy.
Many people will speculate on the real meaning behind the name Behemoth!. On the surface, the name is simply a codename given to one of the fictional films-within-the-film. However, the name takes on many different meanings as the film plays on. It can be a reference to the film’s sheer amount of music, perhaps the most music, minute for minute, of any film released in 2026. It can also be a reference to the density of the emotions on display; watching Serian confront and attempt to unpack the traumas he has experienced, both generational and self-inflicted, and the strains those put on his relationships feels like a massive undertaking, a behemoth of emotional processing. However, in line with that reading, this critic believes the title is in reference to the experience of watching the film. From its stunning opening chase to its emotionally cathartic finale, Behemoth! is a visual and sonic experience that grabs you by the throat from minute one and doesn’t let up across every peak and valley. It feels bizarre to describe the film this way, given that its production values and familiar dramatic trappings pale in comparison to most major blockbusters. The Odyssey this is not, yet it feels like its own kind of odyssey, a multi-year journey into the life of a musician, the music that made him who he is, and the sounds that capture his and, subsequently, our hearts.
Behemoth! held its World Premiere as the Centerpiece selection of the Main Slate at the 2026 New York Film Festival. The film will debut in theaters on December 4, 2026, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
Director: Tony Gilroy
Writer: Tony Gilroy
Rated: R
Runtime: 127m
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Though perhaps too contemplative in its execution for some, those on the musical wavelength of Tony Gilroy’s deeply moving drama will soar along its every twist and turn, hypnotized by the power of its music and inspired by the emotions it evokes in its characters.
Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.
