Behemoth! review: Pedro Pascal is on song but Tony Gilroy's classical music drama can't find harmony

Pedro Pascal plays a cellist with a turbulent personal life in Behemoth!, the intriguing-if-meandering new film from Tony Gilroy.

Best known to some as the showrunner on Star Wars TV show Andor, Gilroy has an extensive career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, from Armageddon to four Jason Bourne movies, including 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, which he directed. Perhaps his greatest triumph, though, is his first film as director: 2007’s legal drama Michael Clayton, which saw him nominated for two Oscars.

While Behemoth! is far removed from the ice-cold corporate universe of Michael Clayton, there is something similar in its attempt to bring to life a character study of a flawed male protagonist.

As we discover along the way in Gilroy’s non-linear script, Pascal’s Alex Serian is a former child prodigy (in one of the cuter moments, we see him playing his instrument, aged 6, on Johnny Carson’s chat show) from a musical family.

Those around him admire his work. “You’re a monster... you’re really f**king good,” remarks Nadia (Eva Victor, who wrote and directed 2025’s beloved indie Sorry, Baby), the musician he has an affair with in this loosely structured tale.

Talented though he may be, after 20 years on the road, he’s back in Los Angeles scraping a living, whether it's in orchestras recording movie scores or even playing music at posh birthday parties.

Juggling life issues, including an ailing mother, he also has to deal with his pain-in-the-neck brother Andy (Will Arnett), who has started up his own podcast. And then there’s Carol (Olivia Wilde, highly entertaining), his ex, who comes armed with a temper as sharp as her stiletto heels.

“People love dysfunction,” says Andy, as he tries to get his sibling on his podcast, although, in truth, it’s hard to see that Alex enjoys the turmoil he’s sucked into.

Undoubtedly, comparisons will be made to Todd Field’s Tár, which featured Cate Blanchett as a troubled conductor mired in a MeToo-type scandal. There’s no such outcome here, but Gilroy shows a similar knowledge of the milieu, and the day-to-day grind of being a classical musician.

Gilroy’s script certainly indulges in big tonal shifts, from a central character exiting the story in an unexpected way to an almost farcical sequence as Alex sneaks around a luxurious mansion, looking for evidence in a subplot best left unspoken of here.

Not all of it works, mind. The structure is wilfully obtuse at times, leaving us with an impressionistic story that doesn’t quite gel in a way you’d hope.

“Fate has its own plan,” says Andy, and arguably that’s the biggest theme as Alex is buffeted by life, love and death. As ever, Pascal is engaging, empathetic and watchable, and it’s certainly pleasing to see him back in an introspective character-driven drama after blockbusters like The Fantastic Four and The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Gilroy also brings in great actors for even tiny scenes, like Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat, Matthew Lillard and Hank Azaria.

With a wealth of fabulous music in the film provided by multiple composers – listed in the credits as the ‘Behemoth! Collective’ – there’s an authenticity to the film, with scenes shot in Hollywood recording auditoriums that really place you in that world.

Yet swaying between black comedy and bleak drama, it’s sometimes too much of a leap for audiences to truly make. But at least for the army of Pedro Pascal fans out there, there’s plenty to feast on, in what might be his sexiest role to date.

Behemoth! is released in the UK on Friday 4 December.

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