By John Corrado

The first trailer has just been released for The Debut. This is the third film from writer-director Jesse Eisenberg, following his sophomore feature A Real Pain in 2024, which won a Supporting Actor Oscar for Kieran Culkin and got Eisenberg an Original Screenplay nomination. A24, who also distributed Eisenberg’s 2022 directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World, is handling this one.

Julianne Moore stars as Mona, a shy, suburban housewife who auditions for a community theatre production. Paul Giamatti is the tough, cranky theatre director. Both their performances look really good, and there are some shades of this playing like a community theatre version of Whiplash. I’m liking everything about this one so far, and after the knockout A Real Pain, I’m excited for whatever Eisenberg does next. Eisenberg also wrote original songs for the musical within the film.

The film opens exclusively in theatres this fall, and I’m hoping this one plays at TIFF first. It looks like the sort of crowd-pleasing dramedy that will play very well with audiences here, and maybe even be a contender for the People’s Choice Award.