The Kid Detective | 2020 | R | – 5.5.5

Why is “The Kid Detective” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language, drug use, some sexual references, brief nudity and violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a nude man and a photo of a nude young woman, two stabbings causing a bloody death and another death that we do not see, references to an unsolved kidnapping, discussions of theft and solving crimes, drug dealing in a school, and about 10 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A teen boy (Jesse Noah Gruman) is celebrated in his small town for his detecting skills and for helping townspeople with unexplained thefts and missing cats. When a teen girl disappears and he is unable to figure out what happened, he cannot forgive himself, and as an adult (Adam Brody) he continues to sleuth but with a lot of self-pity and varying degrees of success. Also with Sophie Nélisse, Sarah Sutherland, Wendy Crewson, Jonathan Whittaker, Peter MacNeill and Lisa Truong. Directed by Evan Morgan. [Running Time: 1:37]

The Kid Detective SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A teen boy describes a photograph of a young woman wearing only a tiger mask; we see the photo later and the woman’s bare breasts, shoulders, abdomen and legs are seen and we see between the woman’s legs but no pubic hair is visible. A fully nude man wakes up surrounded by bags of garbage and we see his bare chest, abdomen, back, buttocks and legs as he crawls out of the pile. A man is shown wearing a T-shirt and boxers.
► A man talks about a client and identifies him as a gay man who wanted to find out if another man is gay. A teen girl talks about having met a “super cute boy.” A reference is made to a teen boy having a “concubine,” and that he would brag about the “things she would do” (as a reference to oral sex). A reference is made to a man having been caught “masturbating in a little girl’s bedroom.” A person is referred to as being “kind of wild.”

The Kid Detective VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A man is stabbed in the chest twice (we see blood, he coughs blood and we hear him moaning as he dies). People are gathered in an alley as a man punches another man repeatedly (we see him later with blood and bruises on his face). A man slaps a teen boy in the face and he falls off a cement divider, the man kicks the teen down a hill and throws him (we hear a splash and understand that the teen fell in water).
► A man hides under a bed after breaking into a house and another man discovers him there. A man breaks into a house by kicking in a window and opens a lockbox. A man climbs through the window of a house and looks around for clues; he hides in a closet when a member of the household returns; the man sneaks downstairs and then back up and hides in another closet when he is nearly caught by a young girl, and the girl is frightened when she hears something in her closet and calls the police after the man sneezes and she hears him. A man and a teen girl break into a school at night and we see many teens inside the building and it is suggested that they stay there overnight regularly. A young woman cowers in a shed.
► We see flashing police lights and officers searching a stream and we later hear that a teen boy was murdered. A car stops on a street next to where a teen girl is walking alone on the sidewalk; she approaches the car and the scene ends. We hear about some cases that a teen boy solved including when he was asked to find out why a man’s car had blood on it (we see the man being taken away in handcuffs by police).
► A teen girl tells a man that her boyfriend was murdered and that he was stabbed 17 times. We hear about and read about the abduction of a 14-year-old girl. We hear that a man hanged himself. A teen girl says that her parents died in a skiing accident. A man says that he thinks a woman’s cat is dead. A man is reprimanded by a police chief after being caught in the closet of a young girl. A teen boy talks about nearly being caught in a closet when he hid from a homeowner. We hear about a missing cat and a man asks the owner if she has thought the cat might be involved in satanic rituals. A man and his father argue about the younger man’s prospects and he tells him that they will not help him financially any longer. A man yells at another man and tells him, “You know you are not allowed on school property.” We hear a woman say that there’s a “fight in the girl’s restroom” over an intercom in a school office. A man yells at his parents and tells them to “Get out of here.” People talk about demon worship. A man tells another man that he wrongfully accused someone of a crime. A man asks another man, “Are you the bad guy?” A man says that he is having trouble sleeping. A man tells his adult son that his mother’s biopsy “came back benign.” A woman is identified as the “widow Gulliver.” A man says that he was responsible for getting someone suspended in high school. A young woman has a name written on her forehead and she says that someone paid her to wear the name for a period of time.
► A man vomits in a toilet and we hear retching and splattering (we do not see goo). A man urinates in a toilet in a few scenes; he reacts to the smell in one scene and we see the stream in another scene. A man arrives at his office and says, “I forgot to brush my teeth today.” A man wakes up surrounded by bags of garbage (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and doesn’t appear to know how he got there. A man is shown chopping down a treehouse that’s a boy’s detective agency office.

The Kid Detective LANGUAGE 5

 – About 10 F-words and its derivatives, 4 sexual references, 8 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (idiot, patronizing, not very popular, nerds, complicated, compulsive, racist, impatient, wandering mental patient, stupid, rapist, pretentious, deadbeat, little girl, town pedophile, monster nonsense, evil, insensitive, geek, gross, mild-mannered honor student, silly, cynical, church mice, irrelevant, sexless, outlandish), exclamations (no way, unbelievable, grow up, wow), 12 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Oh My God, Holy Smokes, Jesus Christ, Thank God, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

The Kid Detective SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man finds capsules in a teen boy’s jacket pocket and takes one of them not knowing what it is, pills are described as a “mix of coke and “who knows what,” people talk about drug dealing in a high school, a man buys something that could be drugs from a young man and tells him, “I’ve been drinking too much,” a man pours out the contents of several capsules on a table and snorts the powder, and pills are referred to as “ego boosters.” People in a bar drink beer and alcohol in a few scenes, a man drinks a beer at home and we see several bottles on tables around him, a man is told that he reeks of alcohol, several teens in a school at night hold cups that could contain alcohol, a woman drinks a whiskey, a man drinks whiskey and we see several empty beer bottles around the room, people drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes in an apartment, a woman is asleep with her head on a desk in an office and is surrounded by beer bottles, a man drinks whiskey in his office, and people drink wine with a dinner. A young woman smokes a cigarette, and a teen girl smokes a cigarette.

The Kid Detective DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Private detectives, pressure, disappointment, trust, naiveté, proving oneself, guilt, authority, giving up, secrets, drug dealing, small towns.

The Kid Detective MESSAGE

 – Knowing the truth can change circumstances.