Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Adrift in the Established Order

Channelling the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's gripping drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an constantly evolving metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; left behind by his parents, the impressionable young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.

On an night on the town with his rowdy group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is physical and passionate, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the shadowy world of prostitution and narcotics trafficking.

A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation

The director portrays Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding instead of as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons 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 electrifying chaos of São Paulo, teeming with bustling alleyways and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for temporary happiness.

"The city are fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can discover chosen kin, too."

A Complex Relationship of Love and Control

Ronaldo is both a lover and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by envy and economic precarity. Dangers posed by dubious individuals in the shadow economy pale in comparison to the anxiety about state surveillance and jail time, represented by the constant sight of police officers on patrol.

Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the lost people who have slipped through the gaps the social system. The film ultimately serves as a moving examination into survival, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of identity within a demanding urban landscape.