Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the System
Capturing the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's bracing drama zooms in on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; deserted by his parents, the innocent young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an night on the town with his rowdy group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an hint of risk. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the clandestine realm of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.
A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding rather than 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 lends not only his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the hectic energy of São Paulo, teeming with bustling alleyways and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as adrift individuals grasp at one another for fleeting joy.
"The urban landscape might be fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can discover chosen kin, 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. Intimidation from nefarious characters in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the fear of state surveillance and incarceration, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is especially potent as a keen observation of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film ultimately serves as a poignant examination into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the quest for identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.
