'The Kid Detective' is worth hiring
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Between the instant classic “Mystery Team” and Rian Johnson’s breakout “Brick,” 21st century efforts to tell adult mysteries using young (or recently young) sleuths have set the bar high. “The Kid Detective” doesn’t reach those peaks. How could it? But it’s good at its job, no more and no less. And right now that’s more than enough to recommend.
In too rare of a starring role, Adam Brody plays Abe Applebaum, who once upon a time was his small town’s top crime-solver, never mind that he was barely old enough to see a PG-13 movie. Now grown up and weathered from the years battling local infractions of various intensity, Abe’s no longer front-page news, especially since he never figured out the kidnapping of the mayor’s daughter more than a decade ago. But when Caroline (Sophie Nelisse of “The Book Thief”) assigns Abe to her boyfriend’s murder, the detective seemingly wants to prove to everyone they can do it while not really being that sure that he can.
With his feature writing-directing debut, Evan Morgan (who sadly has a story credit on the horrendous “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”), delivers a paperback you’d share with a friend after finding it at a used book store. It’s funnier than you expect and way darker than you probably want, landing in a bit of a tonal abyss that adds to why this movie got lost during the pandemic. The movie also suffers from most comparisons you could make, including a drug-related investigation comparable to “21 Jump Street.”
But the red herrings are handled pretty well, and there’s subtle heft to the flickers of a coming-of-age story in which the world is passing the main character by as he struggles with his unique perspective of that world. Whether you’d heard good things about this years ago or just stumbled onto it now that it’s on Netflix, it’s the sort of light endorsement that you’ll give 3.5/5 on Letterbox and if someone asks if they should check it out, you aren’t going to jump out of your seat. But a yeah is a yeah.
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