Overview
A washed-up detective confronts his past while solving a chilling murder case.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- witty
- sardonic
- melancholic
- dark comedy night
- mystery movie night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film as a sharply written, unusually mature blend of mystery, dark comedy, and coming-of-age melancholy.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Abe's child-detective persona and trivial cases create humorous surfaces that gradually give way to a brutal adult investigation.
At 32, Abe still operates as the celebrated child detective he once was, surviving on hangovers, nostalgia, and petty mysteries.
The seemingly straightforward missing-person investigation expands into murder, child endangerment, and disturbing consequences.
The investigation unfolds in a small Canadian town where Abe's childhood reputation coexists with concealed adult wrongdoing.
Films like The Kid Detective, and why
Brick
darkly comic neo-noir mystery centered on a damaged investigator and a morally unsettling case
The Nice Guys
offbeat detective comedy blending adolescent sensibility, suspense, and bleak revelations
In Bruges
small-town crime mystery with dry humor, emotional damage, and a troubled amateur investigator
Under the Silver Lake
stylized mystery drama using genre conventions to explore guilt, violence, and arrested adulthood
Movie Details
- Director
- Evan Morgan
- Release Date
- 2020-10-16
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Rating
- 6.6 / 10 (509)
Cast
- Adam Brody
- Sophie Nélisse
- Tzi Ma
- Peter MacNeill
- Maurice Dean Wint
- Jonathan Whittaker
- Wendy Crewson
- Sarah Sutherland
- Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato
- Kaleb Horn
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is The Kid Detective about?
- A washed-up child sleuth takes on his first serious murder case and discovers that adulthood has no tidy answers.
- What is The Kid Detective like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Kid Detective as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Kid Detective violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in The Kid Detective as graphic.
- What did critics think of The Kid Detective?
- Critics broadly praised the film as a sharply written, unusually mature blend of mystery, dark comedy, and coming-of-age melancholy.
- Which films are like The Kid Detective?
- Films with a similar feel include Brick, The Nice Guys, In Bruges, and Under the Silver Lake.
- How long is The Kid Detective?
- The Kid Detective runs 99 minutes.
- Where can I watch The Kid Detective?
- In United States, The Kid Detective streams on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads.
