Pedro Pascal is one of the most consistently compelling actors working today. Meanwhile, Tony Gilroy has established himself as a filmmaker with a strong command of character-driven storytelling. Put the two together in Behemoth, a drama about a cellist navigating the complications of his personal and professional life, and there’s potential for something special. Unfortunately, while the film has some beautiful music and a few emotional moments which hint at something greater, it never finds its rhythm. Behemoth is an untapped gold mine of dramatic possibilities, one that takes far too long to uncover what it actually wants to say.
One of the film’s strongest elements is its use of music. Pascal plays Alex, a cellist who performs with an orchestra specializing in film scores. To his credit, Gilroy finds some interesting ways to incorporate that musical background into the storytelling. In several sequences, the orchestra plays a piece that gradually bleeds into the next scene, with the music complementing the emotions or circumstances unfolding onscreen. These transitions give the film a distinct identity, allowing the score to become more than just background accompaniment.
The music, composed by the Behemoth Collective, is another major highlight. The group delivers some excellent work, providing the film with an evocative soundscape that often communicates more effectively than the dialogue. There is a richness to the compositions that makes the musical sequences genuinely absorbing, and the film’s emphasis on the creative process gives these moments room to breathe. Pascal also appears to have put considerable effort into playing the cello, lending Alex’s profession an authenticity that might have been missing had the performance felt artificial. The instrument is not an easy one to master, and Pascal does convincing work with it.
Unfortunately, the same care does not extend to the film’s dramatic construction. Behemoth opens with Alex getting into an accident, an incident which suggests the narrative might explore the fragility of an artist’s relationship with their craft. For a musician, a serious injury could mean losing the ability to play the instrument that has defined their life. That is a compelling premise, one that could introduce an immediate source of conflict and give Alex a concrete obstacle to overcome. Instead, the accident barely registers beyond the opening stretch. Alex seems to walk away relatively unscathed, and the film largely abandons the incident without developing its implications.
It is an early indication of a larger problem: Behemoth repeatedly introduces ideas that could sustain an entire movie without doing enough to explore them. For a considerable portion of its runtime, it is difficult to determine what the central dramatic hook is supposed to be. Films about musicians often establish a clear conflict that shapes everything else in the story. Whiplash examines the destructive relationship between an aspiring drummer and an abusive instructor, while Sound of Metal follows a drummer whose deteriorating hearing threatens his connection to the music he loves. Both films use their characters’ relationships with music to explore broader questions about identity, ambition, sacrifice, and the fear of losing oneself.
Behemoth has the ingredients for a similarly compelling character study, but it struggles to bring them together. We see Alex interact with several people in his life, including his brother (Will Arnett,) a fellow musician (Eva Victor,) and a romantic partner (Olivia Wilde) whom he actively tries to avoid. Each relationship offers opportunities to reveal something new about Alex, his insecurities, and the emotional baggage he carries. Yet the scenes rarely build upon one another in a meaningful way.
Instead, the movie often feels like a collection of disconnected conversations. Alex meets someone, discusses a problem, and moves on to the next encounter, with little sense that his decisions are driving the narrative forward. There is an interesting character buried within this approach. Alex runs away from his problems rather than confronting them, and watching a person repeatedly avoid the things they need to address could make for a fascinating drama. The difficulty is that the film does not develop these conflicts with enough specificity or intensity to make his avoidance engaging.
This becomes especially frustrating when the movie attempts to explore grief. A character dies around the halfway point, and the subsequent funeral should provide an opportunity for Alex’s emotions to surface in a meaningful way. Instead, the moment feels strangely hollow. The film has not established a sufficient understanding of the deceased or the significance of their relationship with Alex, which leaves the audience without the emotional foundation necessary to mourn alongside him.
Pascal is an expressive performer, capable of communicating conflicting emotions through even the smallest changes in his face and body language. He does good work here, but the material rarely gives him enough support. We can recognize that Alex is hurting without actually feeling that pain ourselves. The distinction is crucial in a character-driven drama, where the audience needs to experience the emotional consequences of a character’s choices rather than simply observe them.
The film’s narrative structure compounds the problem. A useful principle in screenwriting is that events should connect through cause and effect, with one scene leading naturally into the next. A story should unfold through a series of decisions and consequences, rather than simply presenting one incident after another. Behemoth too often feels like an “and then” movie, moving from one encounter to the next without establishing a compelling progression. Its conflicts remain one-note, and even a sequence that feels as though it belongs in a spy thriller arrives with little preparation, leaving the audience wondering how it fits into the larger picture.
To its credit, Behemoth eventually offers an explanation for what has been happening beneath the surface. The final stretch reveals more about Alex’s priorities, what he has been hiding, and what he has been trying to discover. The ending also provides an emotional resolution that reframes aspects of his journey and gives the film a clearer sense of purpose. For a moment, the movie begins to resemble the thoughtful, affecting character study it seemed capable of becoming all along.
The problem is that this clarity arrives too late. An effective ending can bring a story together, but it can’t compensate for a journey that’s struggled to make its individual moments meaningful. The film asks the audience to grieve, to worry, and to empathize without providing the dramatic groundwork necessary to make those emotions resonate. Sadness, after all, often depends on having experienced happiness first. To feel the full weight of a character’s suffering, we need to understand what they stand to lose and what made their life worth holding on to. Alex spends so much of Behemoth in a similar emotional register that the film struggles to create the contrast necessary for its more devastating moments to land.
Ultimately, Behemoth is a frustrating experience because its strengths are so apparent. The music is excellent, Pascal gives a committed performance, and the film’s eventual destination has genuine emotional potential. But the screenplay never adequately connects its many promising ideas into a cohesive dramatic experience. By the time everything comes together, the movie has already spent too long wandering without direction. There is a moving film somewhere inside Behemoth. Unfortunately, finding it requires sitting through a journey that never quite earns its destination.
SCORE: 4/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives outweigh the positive aspects, making it a struggle to get through.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended the New York Film Festival for our Behemoth! review.
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