By Dan Skip Allen

Jesse Eisenberg is a man who was primarily a child actor starring in the “Zombieland” films, “Adventureland” and the “Now You See Me” trilogy. He first got started in “The Village” and then “The Squid and the Whale” in the early 2000s. His performance in “The Social Network” as Mark Zuckerberg is what burst him into superstardom, though. Later in his life, he started writing and directing movies. His last film “A Real Pain” garnered him a lot of critical acclaim and was nominated for some Academy Awards and netted Kieran Culkin a Best Actor Oscar. Now he’s back again with another standout movie, which he wrote and directed. It stars Oscar winner Julianne Moore and Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti. They are both phenomenal in the movie.

Mona Friedman (Julianne Moore) is a stay at home mom. She has two twin siblings who have gone off to college, and she’s married to Howard (Patrick Fabian). They go out for dinner on a weekly basis with their friends Steve and Cassie (Cara Buono, Craig Bierko). She is bored with her life, so she goes down to the local theater “The Brook” to audition for a production of “Holy Neighbors” without telling her family. She gets up to sing a song in the play, and after a few words, the director Jerry (Paul Giamatti) says he has heard enough. She is escorted out of the theater, and the lady says she’ll get a call to see whether or not she got the role. Local legend Serena Cherry (Bernadette Peters) also auditioned for the same role. After a couple of weeks not hearing back, Mona goes to confront Jerry about not getting a phone call back about if she had or hadn’t gotten the role. He said she would have gotten a call if she got it, and by not getting a call, that means she didn’t get it. He tells her Serena Cherry got it instead. 

I’m not much of a theater kid, but I have friends who are. I did a bit of part singing “Herrigan” in middle school as part of a “Yankee Doodle Dandy” production, but that’s it. I do love musicals and song and dance films, though. Eisenberg captured the vibe and all the ins and outs of a stage production. From the lady with the schedule telling people what scene is next to the production assistant who gets people coffee, all of the various cast were perfect. Everybody in the cast and production were so happy to be there. It was an infectious atmosphere, and everybody supported everyone else on stage and off. It was like a family. One in which Mona seemed to need at this time of her life because she’s going through a midlife crisis. I particularly loved the joy and happiness everyone had.

Julianne Moore is an actress I’ve admired for many years. She’s literally done it all in her career. Horror movies to now starring in a song and dance film about a stage production of “Holy Neighbors. This is the first time I’ve seen her do this kind of film, but it shows her diversity as an actor that she decided to do this role now at this point in her career. She starts out as the nervous nelly worried about getting on stage and ends up being this confident woman who knows it all. The journey from beginning to end is where she shines. She doesn’t feel very good at first but eventually she gets tutelage from Jerry and friendly encouragement from Stef (Hailie Bailey) the lead in the play, to becoming a full fledged method actor by the end of the production. It’s quite the transformation by her. It was like a caterpillar coming out of its cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly to use a wildly used analogy. Moore shined in this role and is well deserving of another Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She may, in fact, win her second Oscar because she’s that good in this role.

Paul Giamatti, on the other hand, is Mr. Steady. He’s been doing this for so long that he makes it look easy. As the director of the stage production, he can be gruff but also congratulatory. He’s mostly in between both in the film. Sometimes, he goes a little far to get his point across like a scene involving a rent envelope. He was trying to get Moore’s character to get the rent from him. It was a strange exercise, but it worked in the context of the story. This was an incredible scene where both Giamatti and Moore were at the top of their game. Giamatti plays these types of leader roles perfectly. He knows how to go to the next level and when to pull back his anger and so forth. He and Moore were a perfect combination opposite one another. I can’t wait to see what he does next because I’ve very much enjoyed his choices of roles in recent years. Even as the villain in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. He has the inordinate ability to make you hate him but also like him at the same time in his performance in this film. That’s the quality of a great actor. That’s why he’s so good.

Besides Moore and Giamatti there is a fantastic ensemble cast from Bailey,  as the star of the production, who I mentioned to Havana Rose Liu, the wardrobe girl with a friendly kind demeanor, to Eldar Isgandarov, as Piotr the production assistant, with a nice accent and a great personality, to Bonnie Milligan as Trish another cast member in the play. She also has a lot of encouragement for Moore’s character, but she has a perky personality. Eisenberg has a small role as Todd, a tenant in the building in the production. He’s funny doing this sort of thing I didn’t imagine him doing before seeing him in this. Last but not least is K. Todd Freeman as Martin the musical director. He has some funny interactions with Moore’s character but also some terrific banter in the film with Giamatti and others. There are so many fantastic performances in the cast that it’s hard to mention all of them, but this is the definition of a great ensemble cast of actors. 

“The Debut” is a film I heard great things about coming out of TIFF 2026. People were raving about it as an awards contender. I usually don’t take much stock in those sorts of things until I see a movie first. Now that I’ve seen “The Debut” I can honestly say it’s one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It’s a movie dealing with a stage production, which isn’t usually my thing, but I loved all of the inner workings of the production. The nuances of setups and so forth. There were little things like the lunch scenes where bananas were shared or when some characters smoked and offered a cigarette to Mona but she didn’t smoke so she held the cigarette in her fingers to get the feel of it and later in her mouth to help get into character. The little details that Eisenberg captured here were very good. He didn’t miss a beat on all of those things. As not as familiar with this world, I felt right at home watching this quirky little film about a small town stage production. I’m sure those who are into this world will think it’s pretty spot on in these regards. 

“The Debut” has two incredible performances that should garner awards consideration come next year. Moore is a sure-fire Best Actress contender, and Giamatti is a Best Supporting Actor contender. The rest of the cast is great as well. The overall film deserves a lot of credit as well. This could have come off as a little funny mid-life crisis comedy, but it has a lot of meaning and importance about growing older. It had a great story about being worthy at an older age and being accepted by the youth of the world. Sometimes, getting away and finding your own lane isn’t a bad thing. Even if you’re the boss, it doesn’t mean you don’t have something to learn about yourself and / or others around you in your care. I genuinely loved every moment in this movie. This is the kind of movie filmgoers need to see more of. There aren’t that many of these types of films coming out anymore. This had me so hooked. Wow, what an amazing movie with a terrific story.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars