Debaser: A Film Podcast

Will & Jared are back to tackle an original big budget sci-fi film written and directed by the director of Rogue One and 2014's Godzilla, The Creator! Is this project overly ambitious and ultimately unsatisfying? Is any original sci-fi film at this point enough to whet our appetite? Is Gareth Edwards a more successful Neill Blomkamp? Are Gareth Edwards and Gareth Evans two different peopl...

Will rejoins Jared this week as they discuss the 1989 Academy Award winning Civil War film Glory!  Is the film an overly long, Oscar bait snooze fest? Does the central plot feel contrived and the climax unearned? Or is the film surprisingly faithful and moving? Does Will think World War 1 and The American Civil War were close together? Listen to find out! You can listen to Reno Championship Wrestl...

Will is out on assignment this week, so Jared enlists his lovely wife Kourtney to discuss one of their favorite and most watched films: Wayne's World!  This early 90s comedy, based on a popular Saturday Night Live sketch, launched the career of Mike Myers and led to an explosion of subsequent movies based on SNL sketches, for better or worse. Does the film hold up today and would Gen Z find i...

"Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed. But still, you find reasons to keep podcasting." Will & Jared dive back into the world of anime to cover their first Studio Ghibli film, as well as their first film by legendary writer and director Hayao Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke! This beautiful and haunting film follows a young exiled prince discovering human-led industrializati...

Will and Jared discuss the recently released short film by comedian and writer Conner O'Malley which is simply titled The Mask. O'Malley's surreal blend of working class American millennial cringe, pop culture debasement, and a sprinkling of sociopolitical commentary make for an absurd, sometimes overwhelming style of humor.  Check out Conner O'Malley's videos at https://w...

Spooky Month comes to a close as Will and Jared strap themselves to a chair and commune with the dead for the smash hit horror film Talk To Me! Is Talk To Me an effective horror film that deserves to be in conversation with the likes of Get Out and Hereditary? Or are the young creators of the film destined to remain making Youtube content? What actually happened in the finale of the film? Does Jar...

Spooky Month continues with the indie surprise hit One Cut of the Dead! Is this Japanese zombie film a stumbling, amateurish mess? Or is there more than meets the eye in this zany, single-take comedy? Did Jared lead Will astray by recommending to cover this movie for the pod? Are Alex Jones and Richard Linklater friends? Do Jared and Will absolutely go to pieces after doing back to back impression...

A legendary film in the Debaser canon, Martyrs has preoccupied the hosts' since the show's inception. A French movie so extreme, we cannot even recommend most listeners watch the film themselves. Martyrs is not for the faint of heart, and is still one of the most chilling and shocking films Will and Jared have seen to this day. Our second entry in our October Horror Month continues with...

It's finally October, and that means SPOOOKY SEASON! To kick off a month of horror, Will & Jared dance around a creepy German ballet academy to watch the 1970's Italian horror film Suspiria! Is the film still awe inspiring and creepy over 45 years later? Is the soundtrack an absolute banger? Did Will come to appreciate what Jared considers to be an essential horror film? Can either o...

Will and Jared are taking a second stab at anime with the incredibly influential 80's animation classic AKIRA! Is the film still visually impressive thirty-five years later? Can Will and Jared parse the plot? Is it a coherent adaptation of the six volume manga? Will a live action remake ever come to fruition, and is it even worth it? All of these topics and more in this episode of Debaser. Th...

Will and Jared have a look at the sobering Soviet war film Come And See. Based on the memoir of a Belarusian partisan, the film follows a young boy as he witnesses the atrocities committed by occupying Nazi Germany forces in Eastern Europe.  This somber film features graphic depictions of the brutality of war and fascism. Afterwards, the duo lighten the mood by discussing what else they've be...

Will and Jared are back to tackle their first anime, 1995's cyberpunk classic Ghost in the Shell! This ground breaking feature was a major influence on works like The Matrix and Metal Gear Solid.  Does the animated film hold up over twenty-five years later? Is the spin off series "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" worth viewing? Is the live-action remake any good? All this an...

Will is out on assignment today, so Jared is left alone to his own devices. For this brief solo episode, he takes a look at the haunting short film The Fall, written and directed by Jonathan Glazer. You can watch The Fall for free at it's official website: https://us.thefall.film/ You can listen to Reno Championship Wrestling & Spellbound and Gagged anywhere you get podcasts. Email the sh...

We're back to debasing ourselves with movies!  Will and Jared discuss one of the most influential action films of all time: Akira Kurosawa's legendary samurai western Yojimbo. After a thorough recap, the duo consider the impact of the film in a modern lens, the numerous remakes and homages made to the film in the years since, and how director Kurosawa's work still puts modern direct...

Will & Jared are taking a break from film for this episode to discuss a hobby very near and dear to Will's heart: The tabletop game Warhammer 40k. There are many facets of this franchise to explore, so Will guides Jared through an overview of the various editions that have released throughout the years and his history with the game. The duo also briefly discuss the various Warhammer video...

Folks, you may have heard that there's a strike on!  In light of the recent dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Debaser is taking a detour from our usual coverage as a show of solidarity. Jared gets out his soapbox and delivers what he hopes is an informative and simple overview of labor unions and the striking labor organizations' efforts  to secure agreements with the major studios that ru...

Indy returns to exploit, er, pillage, or uh, exhume the Temple of Doom! Will & Jared do their best to discuss the much derided sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but can they stay on topic? Is the film as bad as it's reputation suggests? Is the new love interest a shallow and offensive female character that was even criticized by the actress that portrayed her? Is there dark sub...

Debaser is going on an adventure! Will & Jared are raiding the Indiana Jones franchise beginning with, you guessed it, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Does the franchise resonate with millennials? Does Raiders hold up as one of the greatest films of all time? Is Harrison Ford going to play this role until he can physically no longer stand? Do we want to see the Gran Turismo movie? All of this and mo...

As Financial Crisis Month comes to a close, Will & Jared go out with a bang by examining the 2016 film Hell or High Water. A personal favorite of the hosts, this film follows two brothers travelling across Texas robbing branches of the same bank that is days away from repossessing their childhood home, along with any chance of pulling their family out of poverty. Is the film a poignant take on...

In the penultimate episode of Financial Crisis Month, Will & Jared head to the dry heat hell on Earth that is Arizona. In this 2018 film directed by Jonathan Watson, Danny McBride stars as a suburban psychopath on an ill-conceived quest for vengeance that ensnares a struggling Real Estate agent, played by Rosemarie DeWitt. Does the film deftly maneuver between comedy and thrills, or do the jok...

Will & Jared tackle a more personal and moralistic film for the second entry in Financial Crisis Month: 99 Homes. Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, and Laura Dern star in a drama depicting the personal toll the Financial Crisis took on the working class people that lost their homes. Does Garfield have the range to play a Floridian construction worker? Is Michael Shannon convincingly evil? How...

Sound the alarm! It's July and Debaser is entering FINANCIAL CRISIS MONTH! Will and Jared begin by covering what is perhaps the most appropriate film for the theme: Adam McKay's The Big Short.  Can the guys adequately explain the cause of the 2007/2008 Financial Crisis? Are the protagonists of this film anti-heroes? Do the fourth-wall breaking celebrity cameos succeed in explaining diffi...

Florida Month 2023 concludes with Sean Baker's The Florida Project! How authentically Florida is the film? Do the characters the actors portray reflect ordinary Floridians? And how annoying is the tour helicopter?  Only this podcast can find out. Just us next week as we begin Financial Crisis Month with the Florida based film, 99 Homes! You can listen to Reno Championship Wrestling & Spel...

Will & Jared believe in fitness... well, not exactly. I mean they're podcast hosts after all. The duo team up to powerlift Michael Bay's Pain & Gain, a true crime caper set in Miami in the mid nineties. Is The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson surprisingly good in this film? Is Mark Wahlberg a psychopath? Are the writers of this flick known for writing other zany and offensive comedies? An...

We're waist deep in Florida Month as Will and Jared discuss the controversial Harmony Korine film Spring Breakers! Is it art or exploitation? Are those things mutually exclusive? Were the early 2010s obnoxious? Is the soundtrack secretly a banger? Tune in to find out! Next week, Florida Month continues with Pain and Gain (2013). You can listen to Reno Championship Wrestling & Spellbound a...