Lolo and the Kid (2024)

"We're rich bums"

Lolo and the Kid might be a polarizing film due to its subject matter. An older man uses the orphan he raised to con childless couples. They live day to day, spending their ill-gotten gains at the amusement park and karaoke bars.

Whenever Lolo runs short of cash, he leaves Kid near an ice cream cart with some money and goes to Childless Couple Lane to scout out people who will empathize with the small waif and want to take him in. The two scam what they can out of the caring clueless couples before moving on. After they blow through their money, they find another sympathetic couple to rob. Lolo’s conscience begins to get the best of him, knowing that Kid wants to go to school.

Lolo’s words and actions were highly contradictory. He divided the world into those who cheat and those who get cheated. Portrayed as a kindly grandfather character, he taught Kid to be respectful of others and to not curse. All of which seemed preposterous when he had Kid literally steal from the couples they scammed. What troubled me the most were the couples the duo targeted. Emotionally vulnerable couples who could not conceive or have children of their own, were dangled a desired child to care for and then woke up the next day having been robbed. Lolo’s love for the abandoned boy could not make up for the harm they caused. And ultimately, that’s what the film focused on. Lolo was uneducated and poor and the childless couples, or in the one case, a single woman who had overcome a traumatic past, were rich and therefore their feelings did not matter. If they had been evil child dealers or abusive tyrants instead of people who sought to keep a child from sleeping on the streets, Lolo’s actions wouldn’t have been as reprehensible. Also, the repetitive scams began to make this 90 minute film feel much longer.

The two main actors actually did a fine job, especially little Euwenn Mikaell as Kid. While the con artist's sense of moral and parental responsibility finally ran him down like a Mack truck, I struggled to feel moved. And the director worked hard to emotionally manipulate me in nearly every scene. Lolo and the Kid had a few compelling moments, but for the most part, in trying to make everyone involved kind and caring, the film lost its edge and unintentionally made Lolo’s schemes sadistic.

3 February 2025

Trigger warning: Kenny Roger's "Through the Years" was sung badly and often throughout the film.

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Touching story or just morally wrong?

This was recommended to me as a touching story, even compared to "Miracle in Cell No. 7" but it was far from it. I do understand from what angle they wanted to portray the plot as a 'heartwarming/touching' story when an old, always drunk man, found an abandoned baby, and then the baby became his direction in life so he started working hard to raise the kid.

Then we downgraded to a grandfather who's now using the kid to con people? From street vendor to con artist real quick. Another problematic thing is how they are trying to earn money using other people's desperation like couples who for some reason cannot have kids of their own so the thought of adopting is like a beacon of light only for it to turn out to be a scam and instead of a child, they welcome a thief instead. It becomes more problematic when the grandfather says, "There are 2 types of people, those who fool others and those who get fooled."

I understand that some people can be really beyond poor and can be considered as a victim of poverty -- it may explain why they commit crimes but it is never an excuse. After few con gigs, the grandpa eventually put the kid's future above himself and left him with a couple who's willing to adopt the kid but there were no resolutions to everything that he taught the kid wrong. There were no explanations about how stealing and fooling people is never okay for whatever reason. Don't get me started on how they spend the money they get from stealing. I just can't imagine why he downgraded from someone earning small decent money from working/selling to someone who opted to fool people even calling it 'donations'. They also had a lot of chances where someone really wanted to help them with genuine care. Not just adopt the kid but to help them both. To give Kid an education and him -- a shelter but he still chooses for them to chase the one-day fun together, with no direction at all.

It was a whole disappointing plot and I kinda hope there is some redemption towards the end but nothing. It was swept under the rug of time just because he eventually gave up the kid (finally considering Kid's future) and went on his own -- God knows how he lived whether he continued stealing or worked for himself, it's still up in the air. Then we just fast forward to a grown-up Kid who's finally reunited with the grandfather before he passes. (Which also makes me wonder, how did Kid grew up like it's an interesting scene to see him in therapy. How he interacted with other kids after attending school, were there missing items at school because of him. The kind of childhood he had would definitely affect him as a grown-up so it's unrealistic that he's just a normal adult.)

I definitely would not recommend it. Everything that I said above sums up everything that happened hopefully, saving you some time.

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