The Film Baby Review: A Sharp Depiction of Queer Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the Established Order
Channelling the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s gripping drama focuses on those who live on the fringes of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; abandoned by his parents, the impressionable young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his rowdy group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler more than twice his age. Bathed in the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their introductory rendezvous is sensuous and erotic, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and selling drugs.
A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy rather than as a melodramatic morality play. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence 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, filled 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 riddled with risk, yet they are where they can find their own family, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Love and Control
Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by possessiveness and economic precarity. Intimidation from shady figures in the underworld pale in comparison to the fear of government monitoring and imprisonment, represented by the constant sight of police officers on patrol.
Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have been failed by the social system. The film functions as a heartfelt examination into survival, chosen family, and the search for purpose within a unforgiving urban landscape.
