Last year was a game changer for Jesse Eisenberg. The much-loved A Real Pain completed the expansion of his career from actor to writer/director: his screenplay won a BAFTA, among other awards, with Kieran Culkin’s supporting performance scooping numerous trophies. For his third film in the director’s chair, he’s gone even further by writing all the songs and reuniting with Julianne Moore, the lead from his first directorial outing, When You Finish Saving The World. The result is The Debut, which is definitely his best yet.

Suburban housewife Mona (Moore) is comfortably off but unfulfilled. With her children about to fly the nest and her husband less than interested in her, she decides to revive a long-held personal ambition – to sing on stage. She auditions for the local theatre company’s production of fictional musical Nosy Neighbours and, despite director Jerry’s (Paul Giamatti) reservations, she lands the role. Thanks to his relentlessly demanding coaching, she goes from wallflower to full-on Method actor, channelling all her frustrations and pain into the role of the super in an apartment block. But she doesn’t stop there. Obsessed by her character, Miss Danielle, Mona leaves her marriage and constantly challenges Jerry’s authority in an effort to find the essential truth about her character, all of which puts the entire production in jeopardy.

Put simply, Eisenberg has done it again, proving that A Real Pain was no one-hit wonder and that he really is the current master of the dramedy. Not that he’s re-treading the same ground. In The Debut, he gives us an acutely observed portrait of a group of people who are good at what they do – in this case, the theatre company – but not that good. The actors regard Jerry with a combination of fear and reverence: he’s a legend in community theatre, and we discover he was once an actor, but he didn’t make the grade as a director, so he’s stuck in a rut working with provincial amateurs. The resentment and frustration linger just below the surface in a role that’s right up Giamatti’s street, and there’s something very tasty about watching his horror as the Method monster he’s unwittingly created threatens to blow his production wide apart.

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Already tipped to win her second Best Actress Oscar (her first was for Still Alice), Moore is outstanding, especially in her first coaching session with Jerry, which ends with an explosive confrontation that marks the start of her transformation from nervous ingenue to obsessed performer. She soars in the scene, but it’s also the perfect example of how an especially skilled supporting actor can make or break a performance. In a role that echoes but never replicates his grumpy professor in The Holdovers, the inimitable Giamatti’s timing and facial expressions are so razor-sharp that the sequence – and many others – simply wouldn’t be the same without him. Great though Moore genuinely is, he deserves his share of the plaudits.

Eisenberg pulls off a mini masterstroke in the musical everybody is so passionate about. It’s a Rent rip-off, a decent enough show but, like its cast and crew, not that good and promotes itself with a poster which is almost a carbon copy of the credits for Only Murders In The Building. But the director plays on our empathy for the performers when they take to the stage in front of an audience by filming the action firstly from Mona’s perspective and then through the eyes of leading lady Stef (Halle Bailey, enjoying a role with a touch more substance than in You, Me & Tuscany). The technique was used to great effect throughout Nickel Boys, and it takes a confident director to pull it off. We’re presented with a hugely satisfying combination of humour, observation and warmth, all thanks to Eisenberg’s beautifully crafted script and a cast that works as a proper ensemble. The Debut is a joy.

★★★★★

Playing at the BFI London Film Festival on 18^th October / Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Jesse Eisenberg, Cara Buono / Dir: Jesse Eisenberg / Lionsgate UK / 15

About the Author

Freda Cooper

Editor

Freda is a Senior Writer at The People's Movies. A lifelong movie fan and a film critic for over ten years, Freda’s natural habitat is the darkened rooms frequented by fellow cineastes. She can also be found asking questions of some of the biggest names in the business – from Cate Blanchett to Daniel Craig or Mike Leigh to Pete Docter – or crafting reviews for a number of sites and publications, including The People’s Movies. And listeners to BBC Local Radio can catch her views on the latest releases. She always – and probably always will – cite The Third Man as her favourite film of all time. Her top ten? That’s a moveable feast …..

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