Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Lost in the Established Order
Capturing the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's unflinching drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an constantly evolving metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; abandoned by his parents, the innocent young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his lively group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington crosses paths with Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the wavering neon of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is sensuous and erotic, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of sex work and narcotics trafficking.
A Study of Empathy Rather Than Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy instead of as a melodramatic morality play. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and poignant gullibility. To his customers, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, filled with busy lanes and brightly painted facades, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as adrift individuals grasp at one another for momentary bliss.
"The urban landscape might be riddled with risk, yet they are the place where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complicated Relationship of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is both a lover and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their bond is sabotaged by possessiveness and monetary insecurity. Dangers posed by nefarious characters in the underworld are overshadowed by the anxiety about state surveillance and jail time, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is particularly impactful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have fallen through the cracks the social system. The film ultimately serves as a moving examination into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the search for identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.
