The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan, 2020) (Patreon)

The Kid Detective is the sort of movie I wouldn't ordinarily think twice about. It played at TIFF 2020 (such as it was) without garnering much attention. And then, as if to firmly establish its place in the cinematic pecking order, it received a medium-sized American release in the middle of COVID, allowing it to take its place in theaters alongside The War With Grandpa and the latest installment in the Croods saga. In short, this was a write-off that was no doubt acquired on the cheap.

But then, much to my surprise, The Kid Detective secured a place on the usually respectable Canada's Top Ten list. Now, certainly 2020 was an off year in all respects, so the fact that this was declared one of the ten best Canadian films of the year was itself no guarantee. But I took a chance and it was more than worth it. Better produced than a true indie, but still displaying a scrappy DIY spirit that distinguishes it from Hollywood B-level product, The Kid Detective is the sort of oddball item that I suspect will find its audience on cable over the next few years. It has cult film written all over it.

Scott Renshaw likened the story of Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) to that of former Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in Magnolia, an aged-out wunderkind forced to face his squandered potential. But actually, The Kid Detective struck me as more of a distant cousin to films like Rushmore and especially Brick. In fact, The Kid Detective seems like one of the first films in which one can identify Rian Johnson's direct influence. (Memo to Mike D'Angelo: see this movie.) A neo-noir shot through with bone-dry comedy of embarrassment, this is a story of traumatic failure, and an unlikely shot at redemption that presents itself completely at random.

Abe made a name for himself in junior-high and high school as the Kid Detective, an Encyclopedia Brown type who cracked cases ranging from missing pets and lost lockets to his biggest triumph, fingering the apparent thief of thousands of dollars in fundraiser cash. But then, when Abe's friend Gracie (Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato), the mayor's daughter, goes missing, the town turns to this precocious child to find her. Abe can't solve the case, resulting in the mayor's suicide and the town's goodwill evaporating entirely. The blame for a heinous small-town crime is inexplicably laid at the feet of a young boy.

Years later, Abe is a failing "adult" detective. But out of nowhere, a kid at the high school is murdered, and his girlfriend Caroline (Sophie Nélisse) wants to hire Abe to find his killer. For much of the film, we see Abe's questionable technique, crappy follow-through, and low-key self delusion. But like so many cold cases, this crime is eventually solved with a combination of perspicacity and more than a little dumb luck.

The Kid Detective is a strange film, and perhaps not entirely by design. While it all makes sense tonally as you watch it, it leaves a creepy aftertaste. The deeper consequences of child murder, abduction, and other dark secrets are never really grappled with, and part of Abe's success comes from an eerie lack of affect. On an emotional level, both Abe and the film itself treat horrible crimes with the same non-gravity as a missing goldfish. But then, nothing ever really seemed to phase Sherlock Holmes either. So perhaps by draining noir of its sinister penumbra, The Kid Detective protects itself and its viewer from the ugliness of the larger world. The ambiguous final shot may serve as a recognition that solutions often only lead to further problems.