Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the System
Evoking the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's bracing drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an constantly evolving metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; deserted by his parents, the wide-eyed young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his boisterous group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler over double his age. Illuminated by the wavering neon of a adult movie theater, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the clandestine realm of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.
A Portrait of Understanding Instead of Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with cocky bravado and poignant gullibility. To his patrons, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the hectic energy of São Paulo, teeming with bustling alleyways and colourful shopfronts, there’s a persistent isolation, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for fleeting joy.
"The urban landscape are filled with danger, yet they are where they can find their own family, too."
A Complex Relationship of Love and Control
Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by possessiveness and monetary insecurity. Intimidation from dubious individuals in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the anxiety about state surveillance and imprisonment, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers on patrol.
Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film ultimately serves as a poignant examination into survival, chosen family, and the pursuit of identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.
