Behemoth!, the first feature from writer-director Tony Gilroy in more than a decade, had its world premiere as the Centerpiece selection of the 64th New York Film Festival on October 2. Pedro Pascal stars as Alex Sarian, a wayward cellist, alongside Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Will Arnett and Hank Azaria. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in theaters on December 4.
In this Behemoth! review roundup, critics are genuinely divided, with some calling it Pascal’s finest screen work to date and Tony Gilroy’s best film since Michael Clayton, while others argue that its elliptical structure and emotionally withholding central character prevent the drama from fully landing.
The film follows Alex, a touring cellist who returns to Los Angeles after 20 years away and is pulled back into his memories while working as a session player on a series of film scores. The story unfolds through a dizzying, nonlinear structure, jumping between stints in Chicago and Dallas and a series of relationships, including an affair with Carol, a wealthy, married arts patron played by Olivia Wilde, and a romance with violinist Nadia, played by Eva Victor. Pascal, who had no prior cello experience, spent months learning to actually play the instrument for the role, a detail that nearly every review singled out.
IndieWire’s David Ehrlich was among the film’s strongest champions, awarding it a B+ and calling it “a floaty little character study” whose “real and recessive” lead performance “resists explaining how Alex feels about the tension between art and money, which he inherited like a family heirloom.” Ehrlich praised the film’s structural device of using Alex’s film-scoring sessions as portals into his memories and singled out its ending as a “dolcissimo stunner.”
SlashFilm’s review was even more enthusiastic, awarding the film 8.5 out of 10 and declaring that Pascal has “finally” found his “perfect movie star role.” The review argues that, unlike some of his more miscast turns in Materialists and The Fantastic Four, this is “a script that has been written specifically with Pascal in mind.”
The Playlist similarly praised the film’s intimacy, writing that Gilroy “never turns any of this into a psychological dossier,” instead allowing audiences to infer who Alex is “from behavior, relationships, and what people remember about him.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney took a far more critical stance, headlining his review “Pedro Pascal Hints at Soulful Depths, but the Drama Keeps Stalling in Tony Gilroy’s Wan Character Study.” Rooney’s review was also notably critical of the film’s female characters, writing that Olivia Wilde’s Carol, “a wealthy, married arts patron whose ferocious pursuit of Alex when he ends their affair,” makes her seem “like a soul sister to Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.”
Variety’s review landed in similarly mixed territory, calling the film “an elevated bauble of a music drama” and praising its musical authenticity. The review credited Tony Gilroy with having “solved” one of the genre’s most common flaws by having his star actually learn the cello. At the same time, it concluded that Pascal’s restraint becomes a liability, writing that the actor “suffers in such a placid way that we keep wanting more,” while comparing the film’s structure unfavorably to the “elliptical quality of Tár.”
ComingSoon’s review was the harshest of the bunch, declaring the film “unsuccessful” and arguing that it “repeatedly introduces ideas that could sustain an entire movie without doing enough to explore them.” The review specifically pointed to an opening accident that raises questions about Alex’s career that the film never meaningfully follows through on.
Next Best Picture’s review captured the roundup’s central tension most directly, noting that Pascal’s “restraint in the role doesn’t help” a film whose “dizzying structure makes it difficult to get a complete picture of who Alex is,” even while praising supporting turns from Victor, Wilde, Arnett and Azaria as each offering “their own clues to how Alex became who he is.”
Awards Radar’s review landed somewhere in between, calling Pascal’s work “the best cinematic performance of his career” while admitting that the film itself is “arguably one that should be great” given the level Pascal is working at. The review also added that Wilde’s character is poorly written, even as her “fiery performance helps to overcome that, in part.”
On Gilroy’s direction and the film’s use of music, specifically its structural device of having fictional film scores, composed by a group Gilroy dubbed “The Behemoth Collective,” trigger Alex’s memories, reviews were almost uniformly impressed regardless of their overall verdict. MovieRecsByLex called it “a masterclass in how to use music and sound in a motion picture,” while even Variety’s more critical review praised its “authenticity” as a classical-music film.
The Weekend Warrior’s review was the most rapturous of all, awarding the film 9 out of 10 and calling it “by far (Gilroy’s) best film since Michael Clayton,” with Pascal delivering “the finest and most complex performance of his career.”
The split over Pascal’s performance is also shaping early awards conversation. GoldDerby noted that while critics broadly approve of Pascal’s “quiet, almost silent, reactive performance,” he faces a crowded Best Actor field this year that includes Matt Damon for The Odyssey, Andrew Scott for Elsinore and Ryan Gosling for Project Hail Mary. According to the source, that makes his path to a first-ever nomination far from guaranteed despite the attention the role has generated.
Taken together, the reviews describe a film whose craftsmanship, particularly its musical structure and Pascal’s committed, cello-playing performance, is rarely in dispute. Critics remain divided, however, on whether Gilroy’s elliptical, emotionally withholding approach to his central character adds up to something as substantial as his reputation suggests.
Whether read as a quietly devastating late-career triumph or a handsome, well-scored film in search of a stronger dramatic core, Behemoth! has emerged from its New York Film Festival premiere as one of the most talked-about and divisive awards-season entries so far this year.
Watch Trailer:
Film Details: Behemoth!
Director/Writer: Tony Gilroy
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, JoBeth Williams, Margarita Levieva, Hank Azaria, Will Arnett
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 2 hours 7 minutes
Editor: John Gilroy
Music: The Behemoth Collective
Production Company: Searchlight Pictures
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Festival: New York Film Festival 2026 (Centerpiece)
Release Date: December 4, 2026
