Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Adrift in the System
Capturing the urban restlessness and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's bracing drama focuses on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; abandoned by his parents, the innocent young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his lively group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler over double his age. Illuminated by the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their introductory rendezvous is intimate and charged, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.
A Portrait of Understanding Instead of Exploitation
The director portrays Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding instead of as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also moments of care.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, teeming with crowded backstreets and colourful shopfronts, there’s a persistent isolation, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for fleeting joy.
"The streets are riddled with risk, yet they are where they can find their own family, too."
A Complicated Relationship of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by possessiveness and monetary insecurity. Dangers posed by shady figures in the shadow economy are overshadowed by the anxiety about institutional observation and imprisonment, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is most powerful as an astute portrait of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the social system. The film stands as a moving look into making ends meet, chosen family, and the quest for identity within a demanding urban landscape.
