Julianne Moore stole the critics' breath at The Debut's Toronto premiere—spontaneous applause from jaded press

Julianne Moore's performance opposite Paul Giamatti in The Debut has already drawn rare praise from critics before the film's red-carpet premiere in Toronto on September 15. At a critics' screening earlier this week, one particularly hilarious scene prompted spontaneous applause from the press corps—a moment long-time film critic Richard Crouse said he'd never witnessed in all his years reviewing movies.

The dark comedy, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg in his third feature as writer-director, follows a suburban housewife who lands a bit part in a community theatre production and treats it like her big break. Eisenberg was formerly best known for playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.

The film has been building awards-season momentum since its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Labour Day weekend, where the same scene drew a mid-movie standing ovation from the audience. Moore and Eisenberg are expected to walk the red carpet ahead of The Debut's international premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, where the audience will need to figure out how to top what Telluride and the critics already delivered.