The struggling artist has always been a reliable character in stories, perhaps because there is something in all of us that makes us empathize with them. Who hasn't heard a relative or friend wistfully share that they have a book idea they want to write, or wish they learned how to play an instrument?
Recently, films like Tár, The Artist, tick, tick...BOOM!, Whiplash and even The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent have focused on the struggles of being a master at an artistic craft and the challenges faced as they try to succeed. Behemoth! is the next film to tackle the subject as it follows a highly competent, gifted cellist, Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), who returns home after 20 years on the road.
"There was something overall about this story that I think I connected to more cerebrally and emotionally," Pascal said in a Vanity Fair interview. "[Alex is] not a rock star. He's not even somebody that's looking for the spotlight. He's just someone whose first language is music... It's a love letter to music; it's a love letter to movies. It's about family; it's about legacy; it's about healing. I wished for myself this kind of experience as an actor before I ever got to act."
The Trusted Hands of Tony Gilroy
Acclaimed filmmaker Tony Gilroy's not the only one in his family who made their name in show business. His father, Frank Gilroy, was a successful playwright, screenwriter, and author. His two brothers are also in the entertainment industry:
- Dan Gilroy is an Emmy-winning writer in his own right and has collaborated with Tony on several projects including Andor
- John Gilroy is an accomplished editor who has also worked with Tony, including on Michael Clayton and Behemoth!
Gilroy has been a force in Hollywood for over 30 years since his first feature film, The Cutting Edge, and has spent a lot of time writing stories that land in the thriller-adjacent genre while often pushing people to their moral and ethical limits, such as The Devil's Advocate, Proof of Life, the Bourne movies, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Let's take a deeper look at the highlights of his screenwriting career and why writers, especially, should be excited about Behemoth!
The Cutting Edge (1992)
It's easy to forget that Gilroy's first produced screenplay wasn't a conspiracy thriller or legal drama but a romantic sports comedy. This opposites-attract tale follows a hockey player with a career-ending injury and a determined figure skater who team up in pursuit of Olympic glory. While this sounds like a Hallmark-inspired movie-of-the-week (maybe titled Love on the Ice?), it's a little deeper with more conflict as the two skaters struggle to deal with each other and being humbled by the reality of the situation they're in. It's now considered a cult classic.
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
The Devil's Advocate is another rewatchable classic from the 1990s starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. It's a supernatural horror film about the consequences of ambition, dealing with temptation and the compromises people make in pursuit of success. It's a character study of a lawyer at the Devil's law firm who keeps making life and career decisions that push him away from his morals.
This is one of Gilroy's first examples of showing morally compromised protagonists, where the hero must battle their internal conflicts as they weigh the ethical cost of their success.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Gilroy continued showcasing his skills with adapting popular novels into successful movies with The Bourne Identity. Along with director Doug Limon, these two changed the spy game genre by minimizing elaborate James Bond-esque gadgets and going with brute force and intelligence. The action scenes weren't merely spectacle but were used to show Jason Bourne's (Matt Damon) skills, which, due to his amnesia, Bourne didn't even know he had. The Bourne Identity put character above action, which has become a staple in modern spy films, including the James Bond films that starred Daniel Craig.
And when it came to adapting, Gilroy said in Filmmaker Magazine interview, "We didn't use the books. The first ten minutes of the first film is out of the book, but after that it's mine. I invented an entirely different cosmology, naively and innocently, as is reflected in the fact that I am not the owner of any of this."
Michael Clayton (2007)
If there's one screenplay every aspiring screenwriter should read, it's Michael Clayton. This script is up there with must-reads like Chinatown and The Godfather, and earned Gilroy an Oscar nomination.
Why is it so good though? It's an adult drama that moves like an action film, building tension through intelligent conversation, subtext, and seemingly mundane decisions. The story follows a "fixer" played by George Clooney who comes in to remedy a situation when the lead attorney representing a chemical company has a nervous breakdown. The protagonist is also, essentially, a loser -- but one the audience wants to follow. "The character really is, as you say, they're not just exhausted physically, they're morally exhausted. He's not a winner. Not a winner," Gilroy said in a Letterboxd interview.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Andor (2022-2025)
In 2016, Rogue One reignited the Star Wars franchise, proving it still had legs after almost 40 years. It told the story in a fresh way, with mostly new characters, but also many unforgettable ones, and expanded the franchise while making the world more relatable and poignant than ever before.
With Andor, one of the franchise's strongest works of art, Gilroy became somewhat of a soothsayer. What was written and shot years before many view as relevant to today's political environment, and eerily mirroring some of the issues brought up in the series. The stories follow ordinary people navigating impossible political systems, showing how bureaucrats, spies, prisoners, senators, and revolutionaries all interact with one another and culminating in a groundbreaking final season (which Dan Gilroy won an Emmy for).
But no one should be surprised by these successes. Gilroy had been elevating genre material for decades and grounding it in authentic human behavior.
"My son has always accused me of writing competency porn," Gilroy said in an interview with Vanity Fair. "I really like a hero that's really good at something."
Whether it's a fixer, an ice skater, a lawyer, a spy, a Jedi or a cellist, Gilroy is the master of taking very competent characters and putting them under pressure where they have to make difficult choices. That's what drives intrigue with Behemoth! The audience will be eager to go on the emotional rollercoaster and enjoy every moment as the brilliant cellist returns home.
Watch the trailer for Behemoth! here.