Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain (which earned Kieran Culkin a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) was a nimble balancing act, infusing its somber Holocaust-themed drama with the sarcastic and neurotic wit for which its writer/director, as an actor, is known. Attempting to pull off the same trick twice, alas, proves beyond his reach, as The Debut (screening at the Toronto International Film Festival) leans heavier into surreal comedy and yet never finds a suitable tone for its wannabe-moving and sorta-kinda satiric tale of a housewife who goes looking for herself on the stage. Paul Giamatti. A24 Julianne Moore’s game lead performance...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
