The Kid Detective (2020)
Directed by Evan Morgan
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, to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.
2 connections found
View:
2 connections, in both directions
What critics compared The Kid Detective to
Splendidly summoning film noir-esque vibes, classically ghastly bad guys and femme fatale types out of a whimsical small town full of grotesque mysteries, this bold and often surprisingly humorous film — think of it as a more mainstream version of Rian Johnson’s “Brick” — grapples with themes related to murder and abuse, as well as the existential dread of its central recluse, who fell grossly short of the promising life he thought he was meant to have in his younger days.
Sure, the movie has its clear inspirations—Rian Johnson’s Brick springs immediately to mind, as does the similarly themed Mystery Team —but Morgan and Brody contour their work into something original.
The notion of a high-school detective (even a grown-up one) will remind many of Brick , writer/director Rian Johnson’s brilliant debut feature from 2005, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young gumshoe.
The Kid Detective reminded me of the best qualities in Rian Johnson’s whodunits, Brick and Knives Out; most notably the way Evan Morgan is able to establish his interestingly quaint characters, and carve out every nook-and-cranny of Willowbrook’s communities.
Think a more realistic version of the deadpan humor of Wes Anderson mixed with the sleek neo-noir of Rian Johnson’s Brick and you might be somewhere in the ballpark.
Evan Morgan seems as though he was influenced by the best: Jake Kasdan’s Zero Effect, Rian Johnson’s Brick, and there’s even some Shane Black energy here.
The Kid Detective reminded me of the best qualities in Rian Johnson’s whodunits, Brick and Knives Out; most notably the way Evan Morgan is able to establish his interestingly quaint characters, and carve out every nook-and-cranny of Willowbrook’s communities.