Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Adrift in the Established Order
Channelling the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama zooms in on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; abandoned by his parents, the impressionable young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an night on the town with his boisterous group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington crosses paths with Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler significantly older than his age. Illuminated by the flickering glow of a neon-lit porn cinema, their introductory rendezvous is physical and passionate, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the clandestine realm of sex work and narcotics trafficking.
A Study of Understanding Instead of Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a melodramatic morality play. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with brash fearlessness and endearing innocence. To his clients, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, overflowing with bustling alleyways and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for momentary bliss.
"The urban landscape are fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can discover chosen kin, too."
A Complicated Relationship of Love and Control
Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and economic precarity. Intimidation from shady figures in the shadow economy seem minor next to the fear of state surveillance and incarceration, symbolized by the hovering figures of police officers on patrol.
Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the forgotten souls who have been failed by the system. The film ultimately serves as a moving examination into survival, chosen family, and the quest for identity within a harsh urban landscape.
