Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of Queer Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System
Evoking the urban restlessness and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s unflinching drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an constantly evolving 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 finds solace in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his boisterous group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler over double his age. Illuminated by the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their first meeting is physical and passionate, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the underground scene of prostitution and drug dealing.
A Study of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with cocky bravado and poignant gullibility. To his customers, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, filled with busy lanes and vibrant storefronts, there’s a deep-seated solitude, as adrift individuals cling on to one another for momentary bliss.
"The streets can be 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 guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by jealousy and economic precarity. Dangers posed by shady figures in the underworld pale in comparison to the anxiety about government monitoring and imprisonment, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is particularly impactful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have been failed by the social system. The film ultimately serves as a poignant exploration into survival, non-biological kinship, and the search for self within a harsh urban landscape.
