BEHEMOTH! Special Screenings

With BEHEMOTH!, Tony Gilroy (MICHAEL CLAYTON, ANDOR) makes an expert leap from the intricate machinery of political and corporate thrillers into the volatile — and often humorous — inner world of an artist. His subject is Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), a gifted cellist and former child prodigy whose return to Los Angeles after two decades on the road instigates a transformational journey into the past and towards the future. Having left his Chicago orchestra behind — along with yet another a turbulent relationship — Alex settles back into familiar work recording Hollywood film scores, but his personal and professional demons, the complicated legacy of his family and the unfinished business of the life – or lives – he has abandoned are all quick to follow. When an almost-chance encounter leads Alex on an unexpected quest to find meaning beyond his single-minded commitment to his craft, it offers an avenue towards a surprising second chance. Using an extraordinary score by Behemoth! Collective (a gathering of nine film composers – Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts and Alan Silvestri), Gilroy and editor John Gilroy allow music to become an integral part of the film’s dramatic language and narrative architecture. Past and present fold into one another through an assured flashback structure, while the scores Alex encounters in his professional life become a playful cinematic device, shifting from diegetic to non-diegetic across scenes, and turning the conventions of scoring into part of the film’s storytelling fabric. Pascal gives Alex an appealingly elusive mixture of charisma, vulnerability, melancholy and volatility, with an incredible supporting ensemble — including Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Margarita Levieva, Hank Azaria and Will Arnett — creating a rich tapestry of characters around him. Funny, melancholy, formally playful and deeply attuned to the emotive possibilities of music, BEHEMOTH! becomes a complex character study, a story of artistic reinvention and a love letter to the mysterious alchemy between moving images and the music that makes us feel their emotional heft. –Abbie Algar