The Film Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the Established Order
Capturing the urban restlessness and dynamic spirit of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's bracing drama centres on those who exist on the margins of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Newly freed from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; deserted by his parents, the innocent young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the clandestine realm of sex work and drug dealing.
A Portrait of Understanding Instead of Sensationalism
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy instead of as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his patrons, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the hectic energy of São Paulo, teeming with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for temporary happiness.
"The streets can be fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complex 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 possessiveness and economic precarity. Dangers posed by nefarious characters in the underworld pale in comparison to the dread of state surveillance and imprisonment, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers on patrol.
Baby is most powerful as an astute portrait of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the social system. The film functions as a heartfelt exploration into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of purpose within a unforgiving urban landscape.
