The Kid Detective

One really crappy effect of the pandemic in 2020 for film fans has been the sidelining of so many films because of cinema closures. Some simply disappeared off release schedules hopefully to reappear in better times, others have had cinema releases delayed and delayed and some have been unceremoniously dumped onto streaming platforms without even an ounce of advertising where they'll sit gathering dust and go unnoticed forever. The Kid Detective is one such film and to really put the nail in it's coffin it's been stuck with a title that makes it sound like a silly kids pic that most adults will just click by. In doing so they'll be missing out on a genuine treat. 

On the other hand knowing fuck all about a film like this let's you go into it with no expectations, no idea of where the story with go and that's an advantage here because.....nah I'm saying nothing. It's the story of a man named Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody), one of Willowbrook's most famous faces. Once universally praised, he's now a figure of pity. As a young teenager he was called the kid detective, a school going private eye who was called on to solve all the little cases around town, one's involving missing money, a bit of stolen property, he was the go to boy for find out if someone was telling a fib. But his success rate made him famous, grown ups started to depend on him. Then the whole town, and when something really bad happened everyone turned to him to get the job done, forgetting he was a mere child. His inevitable failure turned people against him and now Abe has spent the last 20 years living down that failure and turning to mind altering ways of dealing with life. But to his credit, he kept up the sleuthing and one day he gets the second big case of his life courtesy of a schoolgirl called Caroline (Sophie Nélisse).

You'll adore this film. It has it all, tension, humour, heartbreak, horror, belly laughs, superb performances and a steadfast refusal to give us what we expect at any given time. Nothing plays out the way you think it will, even when you do figure out a big puzzle just before Abe, things go ways you'll never expect, successes leave you crushed, mistakes will give you a fit of giggles, changes of plot direction reframe ideas you've come to believe about big characters, even the ending, which is very satisfactory by the way, ties threads up while leaving you dying for more. At a shade under 100 minutes it's a rare watch that would happily take another 15/20 minutes of story and not feel like padding.

The Kid Detective has a clever script courtesy of writer/director Evan Morgan, someone who's obviously a fan of the mystery genre, one that's dripping with noir trappings and hardboiled dialogue, mostly from the world weary Abe, a man who's constantly misunderstood by the people he has to deal with. He feels like a person out of time, born in the wrong age, dealing with bikers and emo kids when he'd be far more comfortable among the dames, sitting in a smoky bar and letting that big brain of his run the numbers. It gives an old fashioned feel to a modern day setting but it never feels forced and it's all down to a stunner of a turn from Brody as a man who cannot let go of the past. It's taken it's toll on him, drink and drugs are a solace, maybe too much of a solace. But behind that tired facade the brain of modern day Sam Spade is ticking away and he's ready to deal with the town again, a town that's the opposite of him, wholesome on the outside but rotten and broken beneath. When Abe does his thing you'll want nothing more than for him to succeed.

The Kid Detective sounds like a tough watch and true, in places it can be but it's constant low key sense of humour makes it sing and two brilliant moments involving an ill timed sneeze and a smug little My Chemical Romance reject will make you howl with laughter. Much needed laughter as this film and it's implications are going to be rattling around your head for a while after you watch it.

The Kid Detective is available to watch now on google movies. It's very good.