Dynamite. Astonishing. Brilliant. These are just a few of the adjectives being used to describe Jesse Eisenberg‘s The Debut, starring Oscar winner Julianne Moore and Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti.
The Sept. 5 world premiere at Telluride had excited cinephiles waiting three hours in line, and it was worth the wait. The film holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88 on Metacritic as it heads into the Toronto International Film Festival this week. A24 will release it to theaters on Dec. 11.
Moore plays Mona Friedman, an unassuming New Jersey housewife who auditions for a local production of a cornball musical called Nosy Neighbors and lands the bit part of a building super named Miss Danielle. Giamatti is Jerry, the community theater director who has to make it work.
The stellar reviews have already helped the film rise up Gold Derby’s Oscar odds. Moore leads Best Actress. Giamatti is first among the experts for Best Supporting Actor. And The Debut sits in the top five for Best Picture with Eisenberg’s original screenplay is in second place.
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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
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Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day
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The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
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Is God Is
Amazon MGM
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Whalefall
20th Century
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The Uprising
Focus
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Wicker
Black Bear
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The Christophers
Neon
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Pressure
Focus
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Ha-Chan
SPC
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
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In the Hand of Dante
Netflix
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Cynthia Erivo
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Wuthering Heights
Warner Bros.
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Couture
Vertical
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Klara and the Sun
Sony
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I Love Boosters
Neon
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Mother Mary
A24
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Gentle Monster
Netflix
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The Dog Stars
20th Century
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Forgotten Island
DreamWorks
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Gail Daughtry
SPC
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
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Coward
Mubi
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Ebenezer
Paramount
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Bunker
SPC; Searchlight
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Tenzing
Apple
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A Long Winter
MUBI
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Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Quiver
Long Day’s Journey into Night
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Glenrothan
Lionsgate
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Her Private Hell
Neon
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Hope
Neon
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The Get Out
Vertical
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PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 26: Stephanie Ahn attends the 29th Annual SAGindie Filmmakers Luncheon at Sundance at Cafe Terigo on January 26, 2026 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie)
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Guy Nattiv
John Salangsang/Variety
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The Wizard of the Kremlin
Vertical
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The Weight
Vertical
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Verity
Amazon MGM
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The Unknown
Neon
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Madden
Amazon MGM
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A Talent for Murder
Bleecker Street
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Never After Dark
Magnolia
Deadline‘s Pete Hammond calls The Debut “downright hilarious” with “perfectly pitched comedic performances” from Moore and Giamatti. “You will have tears streaming down your face,” he writes, adding, “Comedy is an increasingly rare bird on the big screen these days, and this one is an absolute joy to behold.” As for Moore’s performance? “If ever there was an instant classic example of comedy timing and delivery it is what Moore does here. Priceless.”
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Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman compares the film to “Waiting for Guffman made by the Coen brothers at their most rivetingly unhinged.” Gleiberman calls the film “a twisted love letter to the glory of community theater,” and writes, “What holds it together is the suppleness of Eisenberg’s voice as a writer-director (the wit that singes, the story that never stops poking around corners), and the utterly astonishing performance of Julianne Moore, who plays a crumpled wallflower in dire need of blooming. Oh, does she bloom.”
The Wrap’s Carla Renata singles out Giamatti as “amazingly nuanced” as Jerry, who is reminiscent of “Broadway directors like Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, both of them known to be taskmasters who demanded the absolute best from their casts.” Renata recounts one of the film’s most “touching moments” that shows Jerry describe “that like every actor, [he] wanted nothing more than to be standing center stage. But after having nominal success on tour, he got older, the parts got smaller and he just gave up.”
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Ebon Moss-Bachrach at the premiere of FX’s ‘The Bear’ at Goya Studios on June 20th, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
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LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 20: Mark Rylance attends “The Tomorrow Gala For The Old Vic” on April 20, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)
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LOS ANGELES – JUN 4: Michael Fassbender at the “Dark Phoenix” World Premiere at the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX on June 4, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA Newscom/(Mega Agency TagID: khphotos762805.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 13: Steve Buscemi (L) and Karen Ho attend the The Sopranos 25th Anniversary Reunion: WISE GUY David Chase and The Sopranos during the 2024 Tribeca Festival at Beacon Theatre on June 13, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 13: Steve Buscemi (L) and Karen Ho attend the The Sopranos 25th Anniversary Reunion: WISE GUY David Chase and The Sopranos during the 2024 Tribeca Festival at Beacon Theatre on June 13, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 27: Frank Dillane during the BFI Presents “Urchin” Preview & Q&A at BFI Southbank on September 27, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for BFI)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 11: George MacKay attends the British Academy Film Awards 2022 Gala Dinner at The Londoner Hotel on March 11, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 18: Josh Hartnett attends the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards at The Royal Festival Hall on February 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)
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January 9th 2020 – Celebrities donate time and money to Australia bushfire relief efforts. Actor Russell Crowe donated $105,000 to the NSW Rural Fire Service in November 2019 to assist in the bushfire relief effort. – File Photo by: zz/DP/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx 2016 5/15/16 Russell Crowe at “The Nice Guys” photocall during the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France.
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BERLIN, GERMANY – MAY 29: August Diehl arrives for the 76th Lola German Film Award at Palais am Funkturm on May 29, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Gerald Matzka/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 03: (L-R) Adam Driver and Tom Waits attend the “Father Mother Sister Brother” Backstage during the 63rd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on October 03, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for FLC)
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Eisenberg’s last film, A Real Pain, won Kieran Culkin an Oscar and earned him a screenplay nomination. The Playlist’s Gregory Ellwood graded The Debut an A and framed it as perhaps an even bigger swing, with traces of avant-garde filmmakers David Lynch, Leos Carax, and early Lars Von Trier. “But the result feels completely original,” Ellwood writes. “A swing that actually knocks it out of the park.”
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Angie Han calls the pairing of Moore and Giamatti “dynamite” and the film a “hilarious journey into the mind of an overly committed actor.” But Han doesn’t think it’s a perfect movie. “In the end, it seems unsure quite what it wants to say about the self-destructive pursuit of artistic perfection.” And despite Moore being “an absolute hoot as Mona,” the film “never builds out the rest of Mona’s world, like her inattentive husband (Patrick Fabian), or even co-stars like Steph (a very endearing Halle Bailey) and Todd (Eisenberg, adorably giving himself an excuse to sing and dance).”
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The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
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Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
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