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Pedro Pascal makes his Oscar case with a cello.
“Behemoth!,” Tony Gilroy’s first feature as a director since “The Bourne Legacy” in 2012, world-premiered on Friday night at Alice Tully Hall as the centerpiece selection
of the New York Film Festival. Pascal plays Alex Serian, a former child prodigy from a family of Los Angeles studio musicians who returns home after 20 years on tour to record Hollywood film scores.
Pascal offers a beautiful, internalized performance that ranks among his best work on film. More than that, it’s the first time a director has built a movie on the merit of what happens across Pascal’s face when nobody is talking.
Pascal did not get his fame from the movies. He was almost 40 when his “Game of Thrones” character Oberyn Martell became one of the most beloved — and most egregiously short-lived — characters In TV history. Then came more series work on “Narcos,” “The Mandalorian” and “The Last of Us.” On that ascent, Pascal became an internet boyfriend (“Daddy,” as many have called him). You can’t blame me for worrying about audiences focusing on his depth and talent amid the thirst.
It is, perhaps, why his scene-stealing performance in the 2022 action-comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” went suspiciously ignored. He played Javi, the billionaire superfan of Nicolas Cage (and maybe a cartel kingpin), who went toe-to-toe with one of the most gloriously unhinged actors of his generation. Pascal stole every frame.
Pedro Almodóvar’s short “Strange Way of Life,” Celine Song’s “Materialists” and Ari Aster’s “Eddington” gave Pascal latitude. Gilroy and “Behemoth!” make him undeniable.
Gilroy structures the movie around flashbacks. Each time Pascal’s Alex sits down to play the opening cue of a different movie score, the music sends him back to the people and circumstances that made him flee. Pascal doesn’t overtly articulate those memories. We feel them in looks, pauses and slight changes in his posture. The performance rises in those moments.
Pascal’s work recalls Jude Law in “Cold Mountain,” which is still my go-to example of a reserved performance surviving an Oscar season that typically rewards outsized performances. In that film, Law’s wounded soldier Inman barely speaks during his long walk home from the Civil War, yet voters noticed him anyway. There isn’t a war for Pascal to walk through unless you count the one in his mind — concerning his father (Hank Azaria) or his brother (Will Arnett).
And then there’s Olivia Wilde. Somehow, her knockout year directing and starring in “The Invite,” and reminding us all of her command and delicious appeal in “I Want Your Sex,” gets better. She devours every frame in “Behemoth!” as the ex Pascal can’t quite shake. She’s channeling a little Cameron Diaz in “Vanilla Sky,” harboring obsession with a scary fuse. Noteworthy: Diaz received a Golden Globe and a SAG nomination for that performance, but the Academy passed. This doesn’t deserve that same fate.
Nonetheless, the real star of “Behemoth!” is the music itself.
Gilroy recruited nine composers, each scoring a different fictional film within the film. The result is a soundtrack that moves across eras and genres in the same way Alex’s memory does. The team includes Michael Abels (“Get Out”) along with pianist and composer Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino (“Up”), James Newton Howard (“Michael Clayton”), Henry Jackman (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Nami Melumad (Pixar’s “Dream Productions”), Brandon Roberts (“Andor”) and Alan Silvestri (“Forrest Gump”).
There’s a bit of irony for anyone who follows the score race. Giacchino already has the statuette, winning for “Up” in 2010. James Newton Howard, who scored Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton,” is one of the Academy’s great bridesmaids, with multiple nominations and no wins. Silvestri, whose noms and credits include “Forrest Gump” and “Back to the Future,” has never won either.
The title refers to the giant fake movie the story builds toward. Gilroy created a tribute to the Los Angeles scoring community he believes is disappearing. Following the film academy’s 2024 rule change, as many as three composers can receive individual statuettes for original score. However, nine still don’t fit, unless they enter as a “group” and share the nom (meaning a lone Oscar statuette). A movie about musicians, ironically, could be shut out or disqualified from the category built for them, if the music branch chooses ego over artistic merit.
Admittedly, the film won’t be for everyone. “Behemoth!” is very “Tár”-coded. It focuses on a protagonist whose gift and damage come from the same place. Some will find the fake-movie conceit too clever, and others may think the climax goes too small.
Underneath it all is a simple, aching idea about love and what we think we’re entitled to. That’s Gilroy’s brilliant screenplay at work.
“Behemoth!” premiered in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, and for the Latinos who have been rooting for Pascal since Oberyn, this has been a long time coming.
Look at who came before him.
José Ferrer, a Puerto Rican, won for “Cyrano de Bergerac” and became the first Latino actor to take home a best actor Oscar. Seventy-five years later, he is still the only one. Mexican Anthony Quinn, who won two supporting Oscars, received lead nominations for “Wild Is the Wind” and “Zorba the Greek” but never took home the top prize. Then came Edward James Olmos for “Stand and Deliver,” Demián Bichir for “A Better Life,” Colman Domingo for “Rustin” and “Sing Sing” and most recently, Wagner Moura, who last season became the first Brazilian ever nominated in the category, for “The Secret Agent.”
And Pascal may not be the only Latino celebrating at the upcoming 99th Academy Awards.
John Leguizamo, who received the Career Achievement Award at the Critics Choice Celebracion ceremony the same day as the “Behemoth” premiere, has been grinding for four decades. As Eumaeus, the swineherd who remains loyal, he’s the heartbeat of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” He has never been nominated for an Oscar but that also looks to change this year.
We must sit still and hold the note for Pedro.
“Behemoth!” opens on Dec 4.
