The Kid Detective (2020)

What could be a possible version of what happened to Encyclopedia Brown when he got older, Adam Brody is the titular character, an Encyclopedia Brown-esque detective who now as an adult is still working the same types of cases and struggling with a self-image reliant on past successes as a child prodigy. Hired by teenager Sophie Nélisse to find her boyfriend’s murderer, he’s almost out of his league in handling the case that also gets twisted with both his first big success and his biggest failure. As someone who devoured ‘you can solve it’ mysteries as a kid, this was really up my alley. The writing is incredible, touching on many features of the genre while bringing the story to a modern world. The tone shifts seamlessly between comedy and dark drama with Brody embodying the character with aplomb.