Lolo and the Kid 2024

On the crowded streets, an experienced elderly hustler, Lolo, teams up with his energetic and mischievous adoptive son, Kid, to survive by conning wealthy families. They pose as homeless to lure owners into taking in the child under their care, then profit from the arrangement. Their pattern is carefully rehearsed, turning generosity into a script for survival, as they move from house to house with practiced ease and a casual sense of camaraderie that hides the sharp edge of their scams.

One of their victims is Allan and Gemma, a middle-class couple. Kid steals their retail goods and slips away into the night before quietly selling the items on the black market to a client named Taba for a discounted price. The hustle keeps moving, with Kid stepping away briefly to buy ice cream while Lolo scouts for the next target, always calculating the risk and reward of each new house they choose to test.

Their next mark is Sandra, a wealthy businesswoman whose parents died of a drug overdose. They manage to seize her belongings, yet Sandra spots them from a window above. Rather than calling the police, she chooses to watch them depart, treating the episode as a curious intrusion rather than a crime in progress. The pair then shifts to a third target, a large house owned by John and Norman, a wealthy gay couple who had lent Lolo a substantial sum of money to support his growing need to care for Kid. Kid steals their belongings as well, but the couple catches them in the act, and chaos erupts when Kid is struck by an oncoming vehicle. The couple arrange medical care for him, but he manages to escape from the hospital through the back door and reunites with Lolo, sticking close to the man who has become his surrogate father.

The pair then head to the beach for a day spent in each other’s company, a rare moment of quiet after weeks of hustle. Lolo opens up about a defining memory: years earlier, he was destitute and on the verge of ending his life when he found an abandoned infant and chose to raise him as his own. That moment of rescue and responsibility becomes the unspoken foundation of their partnership and the moral dilemma at the story’s heart.

Soon after, they target Irma and Joel, a wealthy couple who lost their son to cancer and who are willing to raise Kid as their own. Lolo, protective yet pragmatic, believes Kid deserves a safer future away from the streets, and he urges Kid to live with Irma and Joel. This decision unsettles the partnership between Lolo and Kid, because it feels like a withdrawal from the pledge they made to stay together, no matter the cost.

Years pass and Kid grows into adulthood, while Joel and Irma plan for a celebratory dinner. A quiet visit to an elderly Lolo in the hospital punctuates the shifting tides of their lives. Before the moment ends, Lolo and Kid reminisce after selling a camera they had bought from Taba earlier. Lolo then takes Kid to a karaoke bar to sing a farewell favorite, “Through the Years,” as a tribute to the road they walked together.

At the chorus, tragedy arrives in the form of Lolo’s quiet passing, a final breath that leaves Kid holding on to memory. As Lolo is carried away, Kid discovers a photo collection tucked away among their memories—a record of his growth, from childhood to college, confirming that Lolo had continued to care for him all along, even from a distance, and that their bond endured beyond the streets.