The Debut release date: A24's movie puts Julianne Moore under Paul Giamatti's spell
Jesse Eisenberg's community-theater musical opens December 11 — the exact calendar slot A24 reserves for movies it intends to walk all the way to March.
The Debut opens in US theaters on December 11, 2026, with a nationwide expansion on Christmas Day. It's Jesse Eisenberg's third film as writer-director and his first since A Real Pain, and the premise is a comedy engine with a horror movie's logline: Julianne Moore plays Mona Friedman, a shy New Jersey housewife cast in a bit part in a community-theater original musical, who falls under the spell of the production's domineering director, Jerry (Paul Giamatti), transforms into a zealous method actor, and goes to war to protect the artistic integrity of a role with almost no lines.
The role, for the record, is the building's superintendent. Hence, per Variety's Telluride dispatch, the toolbelt and the unlit cigarettes Moore commits to like it's Lady Macbeth.
The festival run did its job
The film premiered at Telluride on September 5 — where Giamatti saw it for the first time at his own premiere — then played TIFF on September 13, closes the BFI London Film Festival this Saturday, October 18, and headlines the Savannah Film Festival on October 27, where Moore collects an Icon Award. The reception turned it from a nice-sounding comedy into an awards-season problem for everyone else: Variety called Moore's turn career-best and declared the film a genuine best picture contender, with Giamatti positioned as the overdue one.
Critics keep circling the same pleasure — the two leads locked in a tiny room:
"A riotous showdown between two great actors battling each other for control."
— The A.V. Club, in its review
The same review notes Giamatti has sharpened his disappointed-teacher voice from The Holdovers into something meaner, which is both a compliment and a warning.
The Eisenberg system
Look at the structure of this and A Real Pain side by side, because it's now officially a method. Eisenberg writes himself a modest supporting role, builds the film around one performer with a showcase part, and hands them the fireworks. Last time the beneficiary was Kieran Culkin, who walked the whole season to an Oscar. This time the showcase belongs to Moore, with Giamatti riding shotgun, a supporting bench of actual Broadway royalty — Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Milligan, Lilli Cooper, Colton Ryan — plus Halle Bailey and Havana Rose Liu, and Emma Stone's Fruit Tree producing again.
Previously we wrote: Scarlett Johansson's Ray Gunn opens at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes after its BFI London premiere — the reviews praise everything except the script
And the date is the tell. December 11 is not a counterprogramming slot; it's A24's long-walk position, the launchpad for campaigns the studio intends to still be running in March. This is the company that took Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once from unlikely to Best Picture, and it has just handed itself a broad, crowd-pleasing comedy starring two of the most beloved actors alive.
Eisenberg's system, two films running: cast yourself small, hand someone else the trophy reel. Culkin collected. Moore's up.