Julianne Moore Thrills in Eisenberg's The Debut — SkimNews
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- Julianne Moore delivers what the reviewer calls a 'thrilling' and 'downright fearless' performance as Mona, a repressed housewife who auditions for a community theater musical called Nosy Neighbors, in one of her most substantial film roles in years.
- The Debut is Jesse Eisenberg's third directorial feature, following When You Finish Saving the World and A Real Pain, and represents a pivot toward surreal, Kaufman-influenced territory.
- The film morphs from a sweet story of artistic blossoming into a darker satire of actorly vanity, with the reviewer comparing Mona's obsessive spiral to Black Swan.
- Paul Giamatti co-stars as Jerry, the play's Stanislavski-influenced director who watches in horror as his leading lady takes his methods to extremes.
- The review criticizes the film's unrooted setting—mixing 1980s decor with modern clothing and no cellphones—and its inconsistency between grounded humanity and cartoonish abstraction.
- Eisenberg wrote the film's original songs himself, and Moore's vocal performance is singled out as a strength the reviewer calls superior to her work in Dear Evan Hansen.
- The film screened at the Toronto film festival, with confirmed release dates of December 11 in the US, December 25 in Australia, and January 15 in the UK.
Why it matters: Eisenberg's third directorial feature, debuting at Toronto ahead of a December US release, hands Moore one of her most substantial roles in years while signaling his ambition to compete with surrealist stylists like Charlie Kaufman and Ari Aster—even if, per the review, his grasp doesn't quite match his reach.
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