The Kid Detective (2020)
October 19, 2020 6:56 AM - Subscribe
A once-celebrated kid detective, now 31, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity. Until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case...
"We begin the film in a candy-coloured small town, a Sundance movie universe a whisker away from being too twee, where the improbably named Abe Applebaum (The OC’s Adam Brody) is living in the shadow of his former self. As the title suggests, he was a kid detective, gaining local fame at a young age for solving low-stakes mysteries, from a missing cat to stolen charity money, charming and impressing those around with his precocious pluck. When a local girl goes missing, Abe’s pre-teen skills understandably come up short and years later, he’s a local joke, the town drunk, an adult detective whose business has dried up. But when a high-school student asks him to find out who killed her boyfriend, he spots a chance for redemption." - Benjamin Lee's review for The Guardian (slight but worthwhile spoilers)
"We begin the film in a candy-coloured small town, a Sundance movie universe a whisker away from being too twee, where the improbably named Abe Applebaum (The OC’s Adam Brody) is living in the shadow of his former self. As the title suggests, he was a kid detective, gaining local fame at a young age for solving low-stakes mysteries, from a missing cat to stolen charity money, charming and impressing those around with his precocious pluck. When a local girl goes missing, Abe’s pre-teen skills understandably come up short and years later, he’s a local joke, the town drunk, an adult detective whose business has dried up. But when a high-school student asks him to find out who killed her boyfriend, he spots a chance for redemption." - Benjamin Lee's review for The Guardian (slight but worthwhile spoilers)
This looks good but I will I enjoy it as much as Dicktown?
posted by cowlick at 2:11 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by cowlick at 2:11 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
This looks good but will I enjoy it as much as Mystery Team?
posted by seasparrow at 5:18 PM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 5:18 PM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
Just watched this after seeing Red Letter Media's mostly glowing review. I love a dark comedy, and while I did enjoy this one I think it maybe wasn't quite as funny as I was expecting. However, I did laugh out loud at when Abe finds the photo of Caroline's "parents".
posted by good in a vacuum at 6:36 PM on May 22, 2021
posted by good in a vacuum at 6:36 PM on May 22, 2021
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This film is a bit all over the place genre-wise, as discussed in The Guardian review, but I think it works and I really enjoyed it. Tons of fun seeing how adults might view an Encyclopedia Brown-esque child, and how that sort of insufferable child would of course grow up into an insufferable, but not unsympathentic, adult. Worth seeing for that alone. (A favorite moment is when Caroline makes some overly clever deductions about how to get into a closed building, leading to Abe assuming she's mocking him and his approach.)
There's a good mystery in the end even if it's a bit darker than the opening act suggests. But I think the darkness is earned - this is about a murder after all, not Bugs Meany and the Tigers running scams on the middle school kids. I'm glad I was able to get out to see it.
And now I need to rewatch Brick.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:15 AM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]