Julianne Moore steals the show in Jesse Eisenberg's community theater comedy The Debut

While tragic when it comes to her family life, Mona’s journey is delightfully silly and lighthearted. The farce comes from a place of love and bemusement. Only the love of the theater could inspire The Debut’s quirky characters to give up countless hours just for the chance to volunteer to be on the stage. They endure Jerry’s critiques and Mona’s incessant questions when she falls too deep into what she thinks is method acting.

The Debut feels like a throwback to witty ’90s comedies like Guffman and Woody Allen’s Radio Days, especially as Mona alternates between her home life and the much more exciting world of the theater—and there’s lots of theater in the film. Peters even opens the movie with an opening number over the illustrated credits. Not only did Eisenberg earn a “music and lyrics by” credit for his songs for the musical-within-the movie, he’s also one of the members of the ensemble, dancing and singing along to show he’s very much a part of the world he’s lovingly mocking. Where Eisenberg drew from his personal experience reconnecting with his family’s past for 2024’s A Real Pain, here he found inspiration from his early days as an actor in community theater in the ’90s.

Although Moore is The Debut‘s bonafide star, the movie works excellently as an ensemble piece. Mona finds a friend in Stef (Halle Bailey), a kindly castmate who’s always looking out and rooting for Mona. Although not onstage like Stef, one of the show’s assistants Piotr (Eldar Isgandarov) is just as supportive, representing the behind-the-scenes tech folks who make the theater possible. But it’s Moore who is the movie’s heart and soul, and she radiates overeagerness and fragility as Mona finds her voice on the stage. Moore is at her most ridiculous, but is so charming in the process that even her character’s most exasperating moments, she still earns every laugh with her antics. In what may be his most inspired casting decision since choosing Kieran Culkin to play his wayward cousin in A Real Pain, Eisenberg matches Moore with Giamatti, and every shared scene is a riotous showdown between two great actors battling each other for control of the show. While Moore’s performance is bubbly and passionate, Giamatti gives his disappointed-teacher voice from The Holdovers an even meaner edge. Each confrontation is more ridiculous than the last, and it’s wildly entertaining to watch the duo face off for low-stakes control.

With two of our most talented movie stars taking on such quirky characters, Eisenberg’s script supplies them with the right scenarios to bring down the house, such as when Giamatti’s grump-in-charge breaks Moore’s meek starlet in an acting exercise to get her in touch with her emotions. She must imagine what’s it like to collect rent like your life depends on it, and demand it with that intensity. She does so by screaming, imagining a horrible alternative for her character if she can’t get the job done. The next day, the intensity is still there, just with none of the nuance, which means that Mona is desperately, angrily yelling at the top of her lungs to the shock of her castmates. At the core of The Debut, Eisenberg is poking fun at the process of performing, making fun of the absurdity of the craft, and having a laugh at the seriousness with which some actors approach everything—even a supporting role in a local production of an ensemble musical. Shaped by his own experiences, Eisenberg’s film has the insight to add wit to the absurd observations filling this comedy. 

Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Writer: Jesse Eisenberg
Starring: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Bernadette Peters, Halle Bailey, Jesse Eisenberg, Havana Rose Liu, Ken Todd Freedman
Release Date: December 11, 2026