CFF: The Debut

Everyone is talking about Julianne Moore's astonishing performance as Mona, a meek, middle-aged housewife who auditions for a local musical production, despite her zero stage experience, in Jesse Eisenberg's follow-up to A Real Pain, The Debut.

Fresh off the autumn festivals, the film boasts a brilliant Paul Giamatti as Jerry, the “biggest name in New Jersey community theatre.” As he works to shake her out of her self-conscious shell, questions arise about where vision ends — and sadism begins.

Meanwhile, as Mona comes to fully inhabit her character, she grows increasingly untethered from reality.