Silly and slight, Debunkers, Inc. isn’t so much anything grand and memorable but a fine calling card for a filmmaker and his future. Sometimes, showing promise can be good enough going forward.
The Debunkers are a group of high school friends who thrive on mystery and intrigue. They’ve come together to form their company – Debunkers LLC – to solve the great mysteries of their high school and perhaps thrust themselves into some kind of heroic status. Either, way they clearly are passionate about their company.
Link, Snake, and Doc (Josh Pinkowski, Izzy Pollak, and Blake Kevin Dwyer, respectively) take on the biggest case their company has seen yet when two classmates approach them for their services. They tell the team one of their classmates died unsuspectedly, and the conditions surrounding the death remain a mystery. They offer The Debunkers thousands of dollars to solve the case, which incentivizes them to get right to work. This could put The Debunkers on the map in a big way and give them the legitimacy they crave.
“…a group of high school friends who thrive on mystery and intrigue.”
There isn’t a lot to chew on, thematically speaking, in Debunkers, Inc., but the movie flows quickly and with great energy. Writer-director Matt Thompson has offered a good-natured outing for young moviegoers, who are interested in whodunit thrillers. He has proved the genre doesn’t have to be purely sensationalized with gratuitous violence but can appeal to a younger demographic. There’s a refreshing innocence to Debunkers, Inc.
Debunkers, Inc. feels like the pilot of a series more than a fleshed-out movie. Thompson could expand the story into an episodic structure and further the adventures of the group, which seems to be a better fit than a compacted 90-minute runtime for a feature film. Even so, there’s an audience for what Thompson offers in his film, and hopefully, the right people will find it.
"…there's a refreshing innocence to 'Debunkers, Inc.'"
