Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) used to be a famous kid detective. Now, aged thirty-two he is still finding lost cats in between getting drunk and feeling sorry for himself. That is until naive sixteen year old Caroline (Sophie Nelisse) hires him to find out who murdered her boyfriend. 

The debut feature film from writer/director Evan Morgan really nails a tightrope between humour and hard boiled. This is a really intricate detective noir along the lines of Chinatown and The Long Goodbye but with a twist that frames our detective as a washed up child genius. 

After being introduced to our morose self pitying gumshoe we are treated to a brilliantly narrated flash back that shows a young Abe (Jesse Noah Gruman) becoming the toast of the town by solving various child friendly cases. Working for quarters and snacking on his favourite peanut based snack bar he even gets his own office with the Mayor’s daughter Gracie (Kaitlyn Chalmers-Razzato) acting as his secretary. But Abe and the entire town are broken when Gracie goes missing and her disappearance can not be solved. 

What follows is an engrossing mystery, stories of arrested development, some fun humour and some dark moments. Special mention should be given to the different ramifications of being found in someone’s closet whilst spying when you are a teenager and an adult. 

Fantastic stuff.