‘The Debut’ review: Julianne Moore has already wrapped up the Oscar race

From the very first minute, it’s certain Jesse Eisenberg’s film “The Debut” is going to be completely bonkers.

Mona, a meek but intense New Jersey housewife played by Julianne Moore like she’s just ripped off a straitjacket, auditions for a supporting role in a musical at her local community theater.

Sounds normal enough? Well, she loses the part to Bernadette Peters.

Exactly what kind of non-professional theater company is this? Yes, Peters plays Serena Cherry, a bigshot amateur, but she sure sings like she’s won two Tonys.

That surreal cameo from Broadway royalty immediately establishes the No. 1 rule of Eisenberg’s third feature as a writer and director, which is showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: There are no rules and there is even less reality.

Sometimes dazzling, sometimes puzzling, always ridiculous, “The Debut” is a song-and-dance fever dream that could be the wacko love child of “Waiting for Guffman” and “Black Swan.” There’s inside-baseball show people humor and a psychological breakdown. It’s capital-W Weird.

More than anything, the movie is an excuse for Moore, who Eisenberg wrote the role for, to go loco. The risk-taking actress excels at that: “May December,” “Savage Grace,” “Boogie Nights,” heck, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle.” But you’ve never seen her be as full-bore demented as she is here. I was frankly worried for her sanity. The result of Moore’s practically pathological commitment to this frustrated suburbanite at a crossroads is some of her best work in a long time.

Fortunately (or perhaps not) for Mona, Peters’ Serena takes a job in New York City and drops out of the show. Mona, it turns out, was the only other person to audition. So, she is asked to play Miss Danielle, an apartment superintendent with a name like a second grade teacher’s.

The fearsome director of the show called “Nosy Neighbors” — Eisenberg wrote all the songs, which border on parody — is Jerry, a jackass perfectionist played by Paul Giamatti. If Moore’s speciality is loons, Giamatti’s is jerks. 

Mona’s castmates — Stef (Halle Bailey from “Little Mermaid”), Zachary (Colton Ryan) and Trish (Tony Award winner Bonnie Milligan) — revere haughty and pretentious Jerry like a pharaoh, but warn her that he is “going to drag you through the s–t and the mud.”

Indeed, Jerry’s tactic with mousy Mona is to crush her in order to squeeze out a better performance. With totalitarian cruelty, he obsesses over how she delivers a little line: “The rent’s due.”

And in the movie’s most memorable scene, a one-on-one after-hours rehearsal that spins out of control, he pushes her and pushes her until she snaps. To our utter delight. That’s when Jerry — and Mona — realize she’s got it.

Inspired, Mona devotes herself totally to Miss Danielle, like a New Jersey Daniel Day Lewis, shoving aside her husband and son who couldn’t care less what she does outside the home.

By now, Eisenberg’s film is out of its mind. Mona dyes her hair black and gives herself a Liza Minnelli pixie cut. Preferring her artsy new hobby to the monotony of motherhood, she discovers herself at the theater, just as Zac Efron did in “High School Musical,” except Mona coming out of her shell doesn’t move us or make us feel anything at all. This is an outlandish movie that’s more fun than it is deep.

Considering this is Eisenberg’s followup to the heartbreaking “A Real Pain,” that’s a slight bummer. Visually this is miles ahead of his last movie, though. Heightened “Debut” is a very, very slick production.

The whole reason to see it, though, is the spectacular Moore, who’s so batty as Mona you can’t look away, lest you miss the slightest freaky eyelid twitch.

Her fed-up homemaker character might be new to the highs and lows of the actor’s life, but Moore almost certainly has a second Oscar in her future.