Tony Gilroy's Behemoth! opens December 4 from Searchlight Pictures. The film premiered October 2 at the 64th New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece selection, screened at the 40th AFI Fest on October 23, and closes the Montclair Film Festival today. It holds 87% on Rotten Tomatoes across 45 reviews and a 72 on Metacritic.
Pedro Pascal plays Alex Serian, a gifted cellist and former child prodigy who returns to Los Angeles after two decades on the road. He left his Chicago orchestra and a turbulent relationship behind, takes up scoring Hollywood films, and is quickly overtaken by unfinished personal business. The cast also includes Olivia Wilde as his ex-girlfriend, Eva Victor, Will Arnett, Hank Azaria, and JoBeth Williams.
The score is the film's structural concept. Gilroy assembled nine composers under the name The Behemoth! Collective: Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts, and Alan Silvestri. David Ehrlich at IndieWire (grade B+) called the result "a much slippier and more elegant thing than the scale implied by its title." Zachary Lee at TheWrap wrote that it is "a love letter not just to film music, but to the complicated and passionate musicians who bring it to life."
Gilroy's Michael Clayton received seven Oscar nominations. He later created the Emmy-winning Andor for Disney+. Behemoth! is his first wholly original theatrical feature in over 15 years. The December 4 date places it inside the full awards qualifying window. Whether it converts its critical approval into a nominations conversation is the question the next eight weeks will answer.