Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System
Capturing the urban restlessness and dynamic spirit of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s unflinching drama centres on those who live on the fringes of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; left behind by his parents, the impressionable young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his lively group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler more than twice his age. Shrouded in the wavering neon of a XXX cinema, their introductory rendezvous is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the shadowy world of the sex trade and selling drugs.
A Study of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now going by the name of Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with swaggering confidence and endearing innocence. To his patrons, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, overflowing with crowded backstreets and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for momentary bliss.
"The streets can be fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Love and Control
Ronaldo is both a lover and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by envy and economic precarity. Threats from nefarious characters in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the fear of institutional observation and incarceration, symbolized by the constant sight of police officers in the area.
Baby is most powerful as an astute portrait of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film functions as a poignant examination into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the search for identity within a demanding urban landscape.
