By John Corrado
A local community theatre provides the backdrop for The Debut, Jesse Eisenberg’s third film as a director following his Oscar-winning A Real Pain. If that film was defined not only by its brilliant writing but also the performances of Eisenberg himself and Best Supporting Actor winner Kieran Culkin, this one is built around the dynamic between Julianne Moore in a new career-high performance, and a pitch-perfect Paul Giamatti.
Moore stars in the film as Mona Friedman, a bored New Jersey housewife with a distant husband (Patrick Fabian) and teenaged kids heading off to college. On a whim, and looking for something to do, she auditions for a role in a community theatre production of a musical called Nosy Neighbors. The director is Jerry (Giamatti), only the biggest name in New Jersey community theatre. Jerry is tough on his actors, with his goal being to push Mona to her breaking point to see what she can give.
Moore’s stunning performance is one that works on several levels. She not only delivers a portrayal of the shy and reserved Mona that feels fully fleshed out, but also lets us watch Mona’s process of developing her character; Miss Danielle, the working class superintendent of a rundown NYC apartment building where the entire play is set.
It’s a magnificent piece of acting on all fronts. We are watching Moore craft a performance within another wonderful, deeply felt performance (and it will very likely win her a second Oscar). As Mona becomes increasingly consumed by her character, The film lets Moore go big within the performance as Miss Danielle. But it’s always grounded in the film’s emotional core, brilliantly portrayed by Moore, of a woman who hasn’t ever really been seen finally getting her moment in the spotlight. And not letting it go.
Giamatti is playing a character that fits him like a glove (there are shades of his work in The Holdovers here), finding moments of intense unpredictability and also some surprising grace notes in his portrayal of Jerry. It’s constantly delightful to watch him work. The world of the film is rounded out by a cast of eccentric characters at the theatre, including Eisenberg himself as one of the performers.
Behind the camera, Eisenberg navigates the story’s tonal shifts between character drama, laugh-out-loud comedy, and even moments of absurdism with both confidence and aplomb. It’s driven by one of the sharpest scripts of the year, with Eisenberg slyly deconstructing elements of performance and method acting in a way that is both really clever and fascinating to watch. Woven in are deeper themes about how much of ourselves we give in pursuit of art.
Eisenberg also wrote a selection of legitimately good, Sondheim-inspired Broadway songs for the original musical within the film, that in the grand tradition of something like Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind, double as sincere tributes to the very thing they are parodying. To take the Guest comparisons one step further, there are elements of his classic mockumentary Waiting for Guffman in the film’s portrayal of quirky theatre actors caring deeply about something so ridiculous.
There are also an undertones of mid-career Woody Allen, right down to Eisenberg’s choice of title font. This is a crowdpleaser in the deepest sense (it’s the only time I can think of that a scene got mid-movie applause at a pre-TIFF press screening), with Moore’s show-stopping performance at the centre of The Debut able to bring down the house.
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