Baby Review: A Sharp Depiction of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the Established Order
Evoking the city's relentless energy and dynamic spirit of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's gripping drama centres on those who exist on the margins of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Newly freed from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; abandoned by his parents, the impressionable young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his rowdy group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler over double his age. Bathed in the flickering glow of a neon-lit porn cinema, their initial encounter is sensuous and erotic, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the clandestine realm of the sex trade and drug dealing.
A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now using the alias Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with cocky bravado and poignant gullibility. To his customers, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also moments of care.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, teeming with crowded backstreets and colourful shopfronts, there’s a persistent isolation, as rootless people hold fast to one another for fleeting joy.
"The city are fraught with peril, 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 bond is sabotaged by jealousy and economic precarity. Dangers posed by shady figures in the criminal underworld seem minor next to the dread of institutional observation and jail time, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is most powerful as a keen observation of the lost people who have been failed by the social system. The film functions as a moving look into survival, chosen family, and the quest for self within a demanding urban landscape.
