Baby Review: A Sharp Depiction of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Lost in the Established Order
Channelling the city's relentless energy and pulsating life of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an ever-changing 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 innocent young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his rowdy group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler more than twice his age. Bathed in the pulsating light of a adult movie theater, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an hint of risk. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and selling drugs.
A Study of Empathy Rather Than Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding instead of as a exploitative warning story. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he enters his commercial trysts with cocky bravado and endearing innocence. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, teeming with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a deep-seated solitude, as adrift individuals cling on to one another for fleeting joy.
"The streets can be riddled with risk, yet they are the place where they can find their own family, too."
A Complex Dynamic of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their bond is sabotaged by possessiveness and economic precarity. Intimidation from nefarious characters in the underworld pale in comparison to the dread of institutional observation and jail time, symbolized by the hovering figures of police officers on patrol.
Baby is especially potent as a keen observation of the forgotten souls who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film stands as a poignant exploration into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of self within a unforgiving urban landscape.
