Entertainment

Pedro Pascal Stars in Tony Gilroy’s Atonal Drama

Purposefully unfolding like a piece of classical music that’s lost its melody among a maze of overlapping leitmotifs, Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!” is a much slippier and more elegant thing than the scale implied by its title — the deception of which is purposeful as well. Sure, there are car crashes, crane shots, and nine different composers to the film’s credit (with giants of the form like Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino, and James Newton Howard each contributing their own diegetic accompaniments), but all of those outsized flourishes have the strange effect of making the elusive film around them feel easier to slip through your fingers.
At its most basic level, “Behemoth!” is a floaty little character study about a hot but avoidant cellist named Alex Sarian (Pedro Pascal) who returns to Los Angeles after 20 years of running away from it and immediately gets seduced back into his memories when he starts working as a session player on a variety of different film scores. Such is the singular effect of movie music — compositions that are inextricably bound to certain images from the moment they’re brought into the world, like a person to the family they never asked to have. Confronted with that strange alchemy for the first time since he abandoned the pictures for the philharmonic, and largely disinterested in the Hollywood slop he’s been hired to play over, Alex can’t help but map the arrangements onto the unresolved moments from his own life.
Maybe, we think, the music will help make sense of the stray thoughts that kick around his head, or at least turn them into the stuff of a “Stardust Memories”-like funhouse to explore. It’s all too easy to imagine what a conventional filmmaker could do with that same concept. But Gilroy, so eager to zag against expectations that he leveraged a mega-budget “Star Wars” show into an uncompromising political thriller about the brick-by-brick sacrifice required to build a rebellion, soon reveals subtler and more ambivalently cinematic intentions than the premise of his latest feature might suggest. By the time “Behemoth!” arrives at its dolcissimo stunner of an ending, it’s all the more rewarding for that.
Recording the percussive accompaniment for a chase scene in an action-comedy called “Spies Don’t Run,” Alex is spirited back to the wintry night in Chicago where he tried to sneak out of a symphony gala without getting caught by the indomitable blonde he’d been sleeping with (Olivia Wilde) — the very married wife of a rich donor. The lovelorn waltz Alex is asked to play during his gig in the orchestra for a romantic drama called “Seasons of Glass” inspires him to travel a bit further back in time and to the south, where a 2016 stint in Dallas was defined by the casually torrid affair he enjoyed with a brilliant violinist (Eva Victor, marvelously atonal) who was half-committed to an L.A. billionaire (Matthew Lillard). Later, a scene where Alex is scoring a top-secret blockbuster code-named “Behemoth!” is intercut with his more recent memory of sneaking into a mansion in order to steal a used toothbrush as a DNA sample for a paternity test, a scheme the music transforms into a comic infiltration setpiece worthy of the “Mission: Impossible” series.
While Alex has never been able to hear the rhythm of his own life, his slipstream of memories soon betrays a pattern that’s perfectly clear to us: The cellist is drawn to strong but unavailable women, and all too happy to string them along until the moment they threaten to strike a more permanent harmony with his life. Alex’s talent is as obvious as his dashing good looks (we later discover that he was something of a child prodigy, a third-generation musician so groomed for Hollywood glory that he played on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” when he was only six years old), but he’s never been comfortable in the spotlight, and refuses to stay anywhere long enough for it to find him. Alas, Gilroy is about to torture this commitment-phobic virtuoso with a truth that no music-lover should ever have to be told: Something doesn’t have to last in order to stay with you forever.
Perhaps that explains why Gilroy doesn’t feel the need to tell Alex that. Or us. More restless than “Michael Clayton” and even slipperier than “Duplicity,” the “Andor” godhead’s first movie in 14 years might think of itself as a love letter to movie scores and the people who make them, but “Behemoth!” mostly prefers to play the notes between the notes. “Cinema Paradiso” this is not.
While Gilroy isn’t immune to the sentimental power of music, “Behemoth!” is more interested in using it as a portal — as a way of making sense of how people move through time. It might start by transposing Alex’s life into the stuff of a movie (all swooping camera movements and fantastical dream logic), but it gradually begins to grapple with all the ways that Alex’s life doesn’t lend itself to a Hollywood script, at least so far as the way that Gilroy chooses to show it to us is concerned. The flameout podcaster brother who looks nothing like him (Will Arnett), the senile mom (JoBeth Williams) whose dementia brings him back home, the hotel tryst he has with a long-time friend (Margarita Levieva)… it seems like the makings of a familiar drama even before we learn about Alex’s fascination with a Billie Eilish-coded L.A. music prodigy (a compellingly self-possessed Alexa Swinton), but “Behemoth!” rarely bothers to connect the dots between them.
Light on psychological details and wishy-washy about how one thing leads to another, the movie splits the difference between a Proustian reverie and a “Jay Kelly”-like this is your life story; the music carves wormholes into the flow of space-time as Gilroy lightly pushes Alex to seize control of where the sounds are taking him. He’s spent most of his life staring at a conductor and “waiting for the stick,” but at a certain point he’s going to have to find his own tempo. By virtue of suffusing that search into its structure and movement, “Behemoth!” effectively submits itself to the same challenge.
Real and recessive, Pascal’s unshowy performance resists explaining how Alex feels about the tension between art and money, which he inherited like a family heirloom. His father hated scoring cartoons, but loved the residuals. For his part, Alex seems vaguely unsatisfied by the role he’s forced to accept as a Tinseltown session musician — he loves the movies about as much as they love him back (which is to say, in job-starved 2026 Hollywood, not very much), and rues the fact that every rehearsal doubles as an audition for the next gig. Does he look down on his brother for so eagerly selling out? It’s hard to say. Does he resent their dad for fucking them both up so badly? Probably, but I sense that he also sympathizes with the fact that his dad never really knew what he was playing for. The obvious effort that Pascal spent practicing the cello pays off in the scenes where Alex intensely plays the instrument for his own private reasons, as if asking the same thing of himself.
A great film score can make the marriage between image and sound feel like destiny, and “Behemoth!” — the story of a life that has never been properly synced up with its soundtrack — commits itself to the uncertain process of reconciling how Alex sees himself with the music that he hears in head. That process of reconciliation takes precedence over the music, all of which is believable in its context (the verisimilitude of the The Behemoth! Collective is beyond reproach, as the fake scores invariably echo with the essence of real ones), but little of which is memorable in its own right. At least, not until it has to be. Not until the deeply affecting scene where a certain piece is performed with a presentness that suggests Alex’s sense of self has, at long last, been made diegetic.
The journey to that understated stunner of a finale is a strange and halting one, as “Behemoth!” is ultimately a movie less about the power of film music or the people who play it than it is a movie about one man’s need to make his own associations with the soundtrack of his life. But Gilroy endows that process with an unforced sense of discovery, so that it feels like Alex is re-learning how to conduct himself in real-time — to hear a different meter than the one that runs through his memories, and to prevent the musicians around him from being limited by the people who taught them how to play. “You need to pick a lane and commit,” he barks at his cello mentee about playing Mozart. “It comes alive when you make a decision.” This misshapen jewel of a film might seem slow to heed its own advice, but it eventually makes good on that promise with a gentle power that leaves you feeling like “Behemoth!” is every bit as big as it sounds.
Grade: B+
“Behemoth!” premiered at the 2026 New York Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on Friday, December 4.

Entertainment

I watched the damning 4-hour Elon Musk doc so you don’t have to

The new four-hour documentary “Musk” opens with a view of Earth from outer space. The planet gleams against the dark background before it quickly explodes into a ball of flame. It’s a foreboding image to preface a film about the richest and arguably most powerful man alive, Elon Musk.
The movie is the product of four years of work from director Alex Gibney, whose previous films have investigated Scientology (“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”) and Elizabeth Holmes (“The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley”). Gibney initially approached the film as something of a Musk fan, an owner of a Tesla energy storage system and solar panels. But over the course of his research, it’s clear that he becomes skeptical of Musk’s mythic image, eventually equating his fanbase with cultists. Musk refused to participate in the film, so the filmmakers made a macho-looking artificial intelligence avatar of the tech titan that delivers lines pulled from archival interviews. It’s an uncanny but effective way of working around the lack of access.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Debuting in theaters nationwide on Oct. 16, the film generously includes a much-needed intermission. Although Musk’s father does make an appearance, his childhood in South Africa is largely glossed over, instead tracing Elon’s career beginning with his earliest enterprise, the online city guide website Zip2. Its sale to Compaq Computer in 1999 earned him his first big payout: $22 million. Next comes the early payment platform X.com, which Musk was edged out of but still earned him another massive payday, to the tune of $180 million. Then came SpaceX, followed by Tesla, Starlink, Twitter, xAI and the Department of Government Efficiency, with running themes that Musk overpromises, underperforms, takes credit for others’ work and somehow keeps failing upward.
If you’re the type of news addict who’s followed Musk’s career closely over the past decade, there won’t be much breaking news here, but seeing the full arc of Musk’s triumphs and ineptitudes hammers home his immense power and underlying darkness. His environmental influence via Tesla is undercut by the irresponsible rollout of autonomous driving and shady abuse of carbon credit programs. One of his superpowers, according to the filmmakers, is his uncanny ability to milk money from the federal government ($21 billion in government funds for SpaceX alone). Dodging government regulation is another one of his biggest strengths, with DOGE’s cuts coincidentally overlapping with agencies investigating his companies. However when it comes to saving the government money, his DOGE project fails miserably, ending up inflating the deficit due to the firing of thousands of IRS officers.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Prominent featured talking heads include Musk’s PayPal colleague and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former friend and neuroscientist Sam Harris, plus tech journalists Kara Swisher and Zoë Schiffer. They all offer damning perspectives on Musk’s evolution over the years, from engineering wunderkind to “mad technoking” and ruthless dismantler of the federal government.
The most compelling voices are Musk’s former romantic partners. The father of 14 children (that we know about), Musk has remarked that he wants a “legion” of offspring. Grimes and Shivon Zilis (with whom he had a recent public falling out) are not interviewed, but the filmmakers speak extensively with Justine Musk, the mother of his first five children, and Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer who recently revealed she also had a child by Elon.
Justine remarked how she came to understand the term gaslighting from her husband, how he’d tell her 15 things wrong with her and once said that if she were his employee, he would fire her. She also goes into details regarding the death of their first child and his reprehensible treatment of their transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson. St. Clair offers the most salacious details. She describes Elon’s DMs on X as a “gatling gun of sperm,” insinuating that she’s far from the only woman he’s pursued online. She turned down a massive $40 million nondisclosure agreement, freeing her to share messages from their early courtship, as well personal texts, many of which are shown on-screen. Although candid, she dodges some lines of questioning, including about Elon’s reported drug use. But she does go so far as to question the certainty with which he viewed President Donald Trump’s reelection, stopping just short of implying a conspiracy (Elon has threatened the film with a defamation suit but has not filed one).
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Overall, “Musk” is an expertly crafted documentary and feels like a definitive portrait of a man who at just age 55 has had unparalleled influence on American life. For those who’ve followed his career over the years, though, there won’t be many fresh revelations, and the four-hour runtime makes watching it feel like running a marathon. The film concludes just like it begins, with an exploding image of Earth. For all his power, the film implies, Musk is no longer aiming his influence at saving the planet — he’s much more likely to lead to its demise.

Entertainment

Marvel Sets New Live-Action Spy Thriller Series ‘Zodiac’ For 2028

Marvel Television announced a new live-action television series titled Zodiac.
The series, revealed at New York Comic-Con on Thursday, is a spy thriller and is set for release in 2028, per the studio.
Zodiac will join a waning live-action TV slate at Marvel, where many of the franchise’s most popular titles have either already ended or soon will. The WandaVision trilogy is coming to its conclusion later this month with the release of VisionQuest.
The Vision spinoff, headlined by Paul Bettany, is said to take place after the events in WandaVision where the character made a return after Thanos killed him in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. The new series is believed to follow Vision (Bettany) as he tries to regain his memory and humanity.
Daredevil: Born Again, which welcomed several beloved characters back into the MCU including Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, will end with Season 3 next year.
The studio also recently reneged on a second season of Wonder Man.

Entertainment

Skydance’s JB Perrette Makes First Moves After Re-Upping Contract

JB Perrette has moved quickly to put together the executives that will report to him at Skydance.
Perrette, who is Co-Chair & Chief Business Officer, Skydance TV and Co-Chair & Chief Business Officer, Skydance Direct-To-Consumer, oversees global distribution, advertising sales, content sales, DTC strategy, marketing and business operations across Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s new owner.
Deadline understands that Perrette has signed a new contract, like a number of David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz’s top team. It’s not clear how long Perrette has signed up for, but his colleagues Casey Bloys, who he worked closely with at WBD, signed a five-year deal earlier this month.
He has gotten straight to work; earlier today, he named three executives to oversee content sales, advertising and distribution for him.
David Decker has been named President, Content Sales, coming ahead of the Mipcom international TV market, Jay Askinasi is Chief Revenue Officer, Advertising and Ray Hopkins is President, Distribution.
Decker’s appointment has also led to the first executive from this group to depart following the merger; Kevin MacLellan, who was President of International and Global Content Distribution at Paramount, is exiting, as a result.
Insiders told Deadline that it was important for the divisions that bring in revenue to Skydance to get their houses in order sooner rather than later, compared to the content divisions that are still working out personnel decisions.
Perrette is an interesting case; he was previously CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games for Warner Bros. Discovery and one of David Zaslav’s key lieutenants. But over the last few years, he has built up a key partnership with Bloys as the pair oversaw the growth of the HBO Max streaming service, Bloys on the content side, and Perrette on the business side. He will also now work closely with George Cheeks, who is Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer, Skydance TV.

Entertainment

Crystal Hefner Asks Jessica Biel Not to Play Hugh Hefner’s Wife in New Movie

Crystal Hefner is begging Jessica Biel to think twice before playing Hugh Hefner’s wife in an upcoming movie … warning her not to romanticize the Playboy founder or his world.
Here’s the deal … Variety reported earlier this week that Jessica is joining the cast of “Playmates” … a movie set around the Playboy brand.
The film is not a Hugh Hefner biopic, and Hugh is not the main character. However, Bill Pullman is playing Hefner, while Jessica has been cast as a fictional version of his wife.
Crystal — to who was married to Hugh from 2012 until he died in 2017 — shared a direct message she sent Jessica on Instagram, expressing concern the movie could glorify him and Playboy.
In the message, Crystal says she experienced “sexual, emotional, financial and physical abuse” during her marriage to Hugh … and claims numerous other women have made similar allegations.
She also references what she calls “troubling concerns regarding minors” and asks Jessica to reconsider the project if it romanticizes Hugh or the Playboy world.
Crystal ends by urging everyone involved in the film — “especially the ladies” — to think twice before helping boost Playboy’s image.

Entertainment

Karen Read Series Starring Elizabeth Banks Ordered at Amazon

True crime fans, this is the best news you’ll (Karen) Read all day.
Amazon Prime Video has officially ordered the scripted Karen Read series starring and executive produced by Elizabeth Banks (Cocaine Bear, Pitch Perfect). The currently untitled eight-episode (each episode is one hour) drama series inspired by the Law&Crime and Audible Original podcast Karen will be written, showrun and executive produced by Justin Noble (The Sex Lives Of College Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Banks will play Read.
The series hails from Warner Bros. Television; Brownstone Productions, David E. Kelley Productions (Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Big Little Lies), Audible and Law&Crime will serve as executive producers. In 2025, when Amazon announced it was developing the series, Read had a strong reaction.
“I have nothing to do with that; it’s not authorized by me in any way,” Read said during an interview with WRKO host Howie Carr. Her attorney Alan Jackson said that Read’s story is “Karen Read’s story to tell.”
Karen Read wants to tell her story through LBI Entertainment (Hell or High Water) — and a book deal.
Here’s the short version of Read’s story: “When a Boston police officer is found dead in the snow during a blizzard, all eyes are on his girlfriend, Karen Read. But when she and her legal team claim she’s not only innocent, but that she’s the victim of a conspiracy protecting the real assailants, the story spreads like wildfire, dividing a community in ways they’ve never seen,” the Amazon series’ synopsis reads. “As endless suspicion mounts, in multiple directions, this genre-bending true crime series explores society’s explosive obsession with true crime.”
“I grew up in Massachusetts, and like so many people there, we watched this case divide families, friends, and entire towns,” Banks said in a statement. “We have spent years with this material because the questions it raises go far beyond one courtroom: why we choose the stories we believe, and what happens when trust in our institutions breaks down. Justin has written a series that respects and treats with care the complexity of what happened and the public reaction to it. We are grateful to Prime Video, Warner Bros. Television and our partners at David E. Kelley Productions, Wondery and Law&Crime for believing in it from the start.”
“This case has more twists and turns than any story I’ve ever consumed, real or fictional,” said Noble. “It makes M. Night Shyamalan look like Nora Ephron. But the reason this story resonates and must be told is because of the profound takeaways it leaves us with: about a deeply imperfect justice system that urgently needs change, about the mistreatment of women by those who weaponize and abuse their power, and about a victim who deserves to be remembered.”
In addition to Banks and Noble, the series is executive produced by Max Handelman, Krissy Wall, David E. Kelley, Matthew Tinker, Aaron Hart, Marshall Lewy, Jeni Mulein, Jen Sargent, Rachel Stockman and Dan Abrams. The project came to Audible via its integration with Wondery; Hart shepherded the project.
“At its core, this series is about more than a single case — it’s about what happens when truth becomes a matter of perspective and an entire community is forced to confront its own deepest divisions,” said Peter Friedlander, head of global television, Amazon MGM Studios. “With Justin Noble’s sharp, nuanced storytelling, Elizabeth Banks’ captivating presence, and the powerhouse creative team behind this project, we believe this will be a defining series that sparks conversation around the world.”
Marshall Lewy, head of Audible content, North America, commented: “The Karen Read case gripped the country because it tapped into questions about truth, loyalty, and who we choose to believe. Karen, the Law&Crime podcast and an Audible Original, set the standard for telling this story and is exactly the kind of IP that translates powerfully to television. We’re thrilled to work with this incredibly talented team.”

Sports1 week ago

The Case Keenum game? Veteran QB delivers for Chicago. Bears vs. Eagles takeaways

Entertainment6 days ago

‘Verity’ Posts $4.5M Previews, ‘Digger’ $1.2M

Business2 weeks ago

A 46-foot tunnel boring machine grinding 110 feet under a Virginia harbor chewed a mastodon loose from the seabed and pumped it toward land as slurry, and an operator watching the mud for metal spotte