The Debut was one of the buzziest tickets coming into TIFF 2026, and for good reason. It’s Jesse Eisenberg’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning directorial effort A Real Pain, and features two of Hollywood’s most beloved actors, Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. Even then, my lack of love for musical theatre had me coming in with measured expectations. To my total surprise, I found myself completely blown away by one of the funniest and most heartfelt films I’ve seen this year.
Set in New Jersey, Moore stars as Mona Friedman, a meek housewife who is perpetually ignored by the people around her; that includes her college-bound kids, her few friends and especially her husband Howard (Patrick Fabian). She sees an ad for the local community theatre holding auditions for the fictional musical “Nosy Neighbors” and decides to audition for the role of building superintendent Miss Danielle, despite having never acted and not having sung since she was a child.
To the annoyance of the play’s demanding director Jerry (Giamatti), Mona completely botches her audition. However, with the combination of previous starlet Serena Cherry (Bernadette Peters) suddenly dropping out and the fact that no one else auditioned for the role, she gets the part anyway. As a result, Jerry is determined to push Mona as hard as he has to in hopes of turning her into a great actress before opening night.
For the first half of the film, I thought it was more or less going to be a comedic riff on Whiplash, and for a while, it is. Jerry isn’t as overtly cruel as J.K. Simmons’ Fletcher, but a lot of the funniest moments early on are just him in rehearsals, completely exasperated in trying to pull any conceivable talent out of Mona. Giamatti is always fantastic, and his performance here is no different.
“Moore’s transformative performance in The Debut is nothing short of immaculate.”
But after an intense private rehearsal that leads into a jaw-dropping monologue from Moore—one that caused my normally silent press screening to break into applause halfway through—the movie flips a switch. Mona starts to become a better actress, but she also quickly and hilariously evolves into a full-blown method actor; constantly staying in character, making unnecessary changes to the script, and being way too committed to what’s ultimately a tertiary character.
Julianne Moore has already shown for decades she’s one of the all-time great actresses, but I’ve rarely seen her display her comedy chops as well as she does here. Moore’s transformative performance in The Debut is nothing short of immaculate. I don’t like making declarations on awards in reviews so early on, but I’d be shocked if Moore doesn’t have the Oscar locked up early next year.
Even when The Debut gets into the wackier side of things, the film has such a deep empathy for the characters, and both Eisenberg’s screenplay and direction wisely never lose sight of that. The stage is a place of self-discovery, and Mona’s only discovering the value of her own voice for the first time. It’s easy to see why the rest of the cast and crew immediately warm up to Mona regardless of her skills.
They also consider the stage a safe space, one where, even though the world outside of it may not understand them, at least they understand each other. Even Jerry’s demanding nature is revealed to come from a human place, as he truly does believe in Mona’s potential, as callous as he may come across at times. We don’t spend nearly as much time with the other actors in the troupe; each of the film’s supporting cast are all endearing themselves, especially a sweet Halle Bailey as the play’s lead actress Steph.
I was also shocked to find out that Eisenberg, who also appears on-screen as one of the troupe’s actors, also wrote all of the original songs for the film. Even with my lack of musical know-how, every song for Nosy Neighbors feels like it could conceivably exist in the real world. It’s very much a cheesy off-off-Broadway show about two random New Yorkers who fall in love, but never does its ridiculousness feel inauthentic. Rather, this would very much be a musical that my musically-inclined friends would adore and irritate me with all the time.
The Debut is one of the best crowd-pleasers of the year. It’s crazy how much Jesse Eisenberg has already shown to be a considerable force behind the camera, and he’s just a few films in under his belt. I can’t wait to see what else he does next.
