Heated Rivalry’s Sophie Nélisse Starred in One of the Best Crime Movies You’ve Ever Seen

Whether you know her as Rose Landry from “Heated Rivalry” or Shauna Shipman from “Yellowjackets,” Sophie Nélisse is a talent to watch. The Quebec actress has been acting since childhood; her first major role was in 2013’s “The Book Thief,” about a young girl living in Nazi Germany. Nélisse has since added a resume of other films to her credit, from another World War II drama, “Irena’s Vow”, to the mystery comedy “The Kid Detective.”

What happens when Encyclopedia Brown, the precocious young detective who solves minor mysteries around town, grows up? According to “The Kid Detective”, this experience would give him inflated self-esteem, so he would peak early. Abe Appelbaum (Adam Brody) is a former young detective turned struggling private investigator. The charm of his solving little mysteries wore off for the townspeople once he left college, but even at 32, he remains true to his path. Then one day, a teenage girl named Caroline (Nélisse) walks into Abe’s office and asks him to solve a problem. real crime: the murder of her boyfriend, Patrick.

“The Kid Detective” premiered in late 2020, which was very bad timing for a theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film’s writer-director, Evan Morgan, an appearance on the podcast “My First Picture”looked on the positive side and argued that there was less theatrical competition for “The Kid Detective”.

“For an independent film, all you really hope is that people know the film exists,” Morgan said. The film ultimately only grossed about $360,000 at the box office, but “The Kid Detective” has attracted more attention since it began airing. The film was released just before the explosion of Nélisse, thanks to the “Yellow Vests”, and its fans must watch it.

“The Kid Detective” has a similar vibe to Rian Johnson’s mystery film “Brick” which took a Dashiell Hammett-style mystery and stuck it in a high school. Both films, however, avoid simple parody, as the stakes and violence of the mysteries are life and death. As Morgan said in “My First Feature,” his original concept was a film about a young detective who solves real, “horrific” crimes like murders, but after meeting Adam Brody, he flipped that premise to rework Brody’s lead role.

Like “Brick,” “The Kid Detective” is structured like a classic film noir but in suburbia. A woman walks in off the street into a private detective’s office and asks him to solve a murder. Along the way, he uncovers the case and dark secrets he never expected to discover. Abe sometimes even narrates the image, completing the noir feel. During “The Kid Detective”, Caroline joins Abe in his investigation; she’s basically his Watson, even if Abe isn’t Sherlock Holmes. Between Nélisse’s doe eyes and soft voice, she projects the classic girl-next-door innocence that contrasts with the seething darkness of the city.

At the low point of the third act, Abe confides to Caroline his feelings of having wasted his childhood potential: “It’s hard to accept the difference between who you are in your head and who you are in the world,” he says. Caroline confides in him too, admitting that she’s tired of everyone treating her like a little girl who doesn’t even dream of breaking the rules. If you know Sophie Nélisse, you know she can get darker. When you look at her, you expect a Caroline, but The “yellow vests” used this expectation to blind the public when Shauna became a monster.

If Nélisse in the role of Caroline is an essential ingredient, “The Kid Detective” is above all Abe’s story. Like most fictional detectives, he has an unsolved case that haunts him: Back when he was a real-life kid detective, his friend Gracie Gulliver (Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato) disappeared. Although no one in town really expected a simple child to solve a kidnapping, Abe thought he should have; he failed Gracie and himself.

Abe’s perception of his hometown reflects his image of himself. He remarks, in narration and dialogue, that the town is much less bright and sunny than when he was a child, as is how he is drunk and well past his glory days. In this part, Brody’s deadpan comedic style is perfect. Abe sees Caroline as an avatar of Gracie, his second chance to solve a real crime and help a girl in need. For this character, you need an actress who can appear both naive and And more mature than you think beneath this naivety. Speaking of Caroline’s arc, Nélisse said that: “She’s an old soul and she understands more than you think.”

While “The Kid Detective” ends with all the mystery threads tied up, it retains the emotional resolution of the protagonists. In Abe and Caroline’s last scene together, there is a lot of emptiness and no sentimentality in their adventure together. They know the truth, but it’s hard to feel too triumphant. Watch “The Kid Detective” and you’ll understand why.