Baby Review: A Sharp Depiction of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the Established Order
Channelling the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's unflinching drama zooms in on those who live on the fringes of an ever-changing metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; deserted by his parents, the innocent young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an night on the town with his lively group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington crosses paths with Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their initial encounter is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the clandestine realm of sex work and selling drugs.
A Study of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation
The director portrays Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy as opposed to as a melodramatic morality play. Now going by the name of Baby, he enters his commercial trysts with swaggering confidence and poignant gullibility. 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, filled with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as rootless people cling on to one another for fleeting joy.
"The streets are filled with danger, yet they are the place where they can find their own family, too."
A Complicated Relationship of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is both a lover and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and monetary insecurity. Dangers posed by dubious individuals in the underworld are overshadowed by the dread of institutional observation and incarceration, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers in the area.
Baby is especially potent as a keen observation of the disenfranchised individuals who have been failed by the established structure. The film ultimately serves as a poignant exploration into resilience, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.
