Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System
Capturing the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama focuses on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; left behind by his parents, the wide-eyed young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the wavering neon of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of sex work and selling drugs.
A Portrait of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy as opposed to as a melodramatic morality play. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with brash fearlessness and touching naivety. To his customers, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, teeming with crowded backstreets and colourful shopfronts, there’s a deep-seated solitude, as adrift individuals cling on to one another for temporary happiness.
"The streets are fraught with peril, yet they are where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complicated Relationship of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their bond is sabotaged by jealousy and financial instability. Threats from shady figures in the underworld pale in comparison to the anxiety about government monitoring and jail time, represented by the constant sight 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 functions as a heartfelt examination into survival, chosen family, and the search for identity within a demanding urban landscape.
