Only in a world with a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots could a Sundance documentary like Sugar Babies exist. While the title may give you the mental image of an Instagram baddie pouting and flirting with the camera to collect mountains of money from gullible old men, Sugar Babies gives a very realistic look at the state of hustle culture today. Set in the small town of Ruston, Louisiana, director Rachel Fleit hones in on a group of adolescents who are out of high school but still trying to find where they fit in the world. A part of that struggle is finding a way to survive in a world that’s becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to live in. A subtle examination of poverty and youth, Fleit highlights this community and, without judgment, shows what it takes to survive in modern-day America.
Rachel Fleit Sheds Light on the Struggles of Young People in America in ‘Sugar Babies’

Sugar Babies primarily follows Autumn, a college student struggling to pay for her education after losing her scholarship and finding the funds she needs as a burgeoning social media maven and sugar baby. The catch? She’s a sugar baby without the sugar. No meeting up with clients and no sex. Just pictures, videos, flirty texts, and an active Cash App account. Citing the COVID pandemic as the primary reason why she became a sugar baby, Autumn notes that there aren’t many job options for her and her friends in their small town.
With a painfully low minimum wage (Louisiana’s minimum wage is $7.25), the only way to make good money was waiting tables. When COVID shut down many businesses, she had to get creative. While it’s not a world that she ever thought she would be in, sugaring allowed her to become financially independent. She could pay for a new apartment, go on a little vacation, and pay for school. The film never judges or tries to demonize Autumn’s sugaring, which could be defined as sex work. And in the struggle to pay the bills, no one around Autumn judges her for making her money. In fact, she talks a group of her friends into joining her when she realizes that she can make actual money from being a sugar baby.
Fleit highlights the benefits of being financially independent and how having a bit more money can increase a person’s quality of life significantly. While Autumn and her friends talk about scamming their clients, there’s no finger-wagging to be found. We get it, these girls are doing what they need to get by and providing a service that’s clearly sought after.
‘Sugar Babies’ Centers Around a Close-Knit Group of Friends

Image Via Sundance Film Festival

A highlight of Sugar Babies is the fact that its focus is not solely on the topic of sugaring, she focuses the story around this tight-knit group of friends. Fleit’s empathetic camera focuses on Autumn, her best friend (who is pregnant), her younger sister, her long-time on-and-off boyfriend, and their group of friends. Everyone’s watched each other grow up, everyone knows everyone. And although living in Ruston isn’t exactly living the high life, many of the kids can’t imagine living anywhere else.
In entertainment and in film and TV, we often see a character eager to leave their small town and run away to the big city, but Sugar Babies makes a good case for the small town. There’s a strong sense of community, and we learn that part of the reason why Autumn is going to school near Ruston instead of at FSU is because she missed her home so much she didn’t want to stay there. The fact is that Fleit makes it clear that young people like Autumn want to stay in their small towns, but it’s nearly impossible to live there based on the wages they earn now. When the best chance at a job that will keep you afloat is at Walmart or waitressing for college grads, there’s something wrong.
‘Sugar Babies’ Misses the Opportunity to Dig Deeper

Image by Jovelle Tamayo via Sundance Institute

One thing that Sugar Babies does not highlight is the fact that this idea of “sugaring without sugar” is not unique to Autumn. Even my own Instagram reels and TikTok was flooded with young influencers trying to teach their viewers how to get money fast without having to give anything up. Yes, of course, in the world of OnlyFans, sex workers can take autonomy in how they earn money, but not everyone wants to do sex work. Fleit doesn’t do enough to actually look into this phenomenon while also looking at the world of actual sex work.
Instead, her focus is far more on the plight of Autumn herself. In a time jump, we learn that Autumn has stopped sugaring and she and her friends talk about the emptiness of the interactions along with the struggle to juggle the lies they lean on to scam men out of money. It’s a moment that highlights how draining and unglamorous the hustle culture is, but it’s not a moment that Fleit lingers on enough. What does all of this mean at the end of the day? Autumn, as the first college graduate in her family, is still struggling to make ends meet, but why does sugaring no longer interest her? Did something happen?
There’s a missed opportunity here that could have offered more insight into the sacrifices that Autumn gave. The documentary doesn’t judge Autumn, but it also seems to encourage people into thinking sugaring is easy. At multiple points, she tries to get her friends involved and at no point do we learn more about the Johns that they’re talking to or how the actual act affects their relationship with men. Sugar Babies is an intimate look at poverty and the changing of the American dream, but it fails to look deep enough to make the impact it intends to.

Sugar Babies

Rachel Fleit’s ‘Sugar Babies’ looks closely at one girl’s struggle to make it in small-town America but does not dig deep enough to make a strong impact.

Release Date

January 27, 2025

Runtime

81 Minutes

Director

Rachel Fleit

Pros & Cons

Fleit cleverly focuses the documentary around a close-knit friend group, following them throughout time for updates.
‘Sugar Babies’ is nonjudgemental when it looks at sex work, examining the state of poverty in America much closer.

‘Sugar Babies’ doesn’t investigate the effect of sex work on the subjects or looks closely enough at the industry itself.