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\n\tIt has been 14 years since Tony Gilroy<\/a> last directed a feature film, 2012\u2019s The Bourne Legacy. Before that was Duplicity and in 2007 his sensational Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton. He has been busy though, notably the critically acclaimed TV series Andor, but it is good to see his rare sophisticated storytelling back on the big screen with the compelling journey of a lifelong cellist whose nomad-like life reaches a crescendo and turning point after years of following the music professionally and personally.<\/p>\n \n\tBehemoth!, which had its world premiere today at the New York Film Festival<\/a>, is the rare movie set in the world of Hollywood music soundstages and it undoubtedly is a love letter to this crucial, usually final, aspect of the production process. But its central focus is on the family and romantic ties of one musician, Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal<\/a>), who was born to be in an orchestra \u2014 in fact he couldn\u2019t escape it \u2014 and that has taken its toll on this man for whom music is the one and only steady beat in his life, if not his heart.<\/p>\n \n\tAlex\u2019s grandfather was a session musician for movies who died playing on one in 1959; his absent father, Peter (Hank Azaria<\/a>), also was a composer for cartoons and television, if not a creatively satisfied one; his mother Ginnie (Jo Beth Williams<\/a>) was a successful musician herself; as was his brother Andy (Will Arnett<\/a>), who had a taste of fame in a \u201990s rock band. In many ways the devotion to their professional life all took a toll on this family, and in Alex\u2019s case turned him inward \u2014 a traveling cello player drifting from city to city, and relationship to relationship, being on the road the only real life he knew, his true potential never completely met.<\/p>\n \n\tNow after 20 years he is returning to Los Angeles, getting day work on a number of movie-scoring sessions but also dealing with family issues including the failing health of his mother, his brother\u2019s quirkiness, and perhaps the biggest lingering question he has still in his life via an encounter with a 15- year-old prodigy, Viviana Glenn (Alexa Swinton), who not only has a huge following on the pop circuit (think Billie Eilish) but who also has now been called in to replace the composer on the movie Behemoth!<\/a> (a code name for the secret film the are working on).<\/p>\n \n\tAll of this is played out in non-linear fashion as we meet Alex on a session for a movie, but as he plays the notes, Gilroy\u2019s script goes to flashbacks of his earlier life, back and forth between present day and various years, jobs and romantic liaisons. First we get a look at his past romantic entanglements as one woman yells at him complaining about another she discovers he slept with. That one is a funny bit with a determined Carol Spedding (Olivia Wilde<\/a>), with whom Alex had a fling in Chicago, but is now taking things overboard insisting he made a huge mistake breaking it off. This woman is just one boiling bunny removed from a restraining order and Wilde amusingly plays it for all its worth.<\/p>\n