Baby Review: A Sharp Depiction of Queer Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System
Channelling the city's relentless energy and vibrancy of São Paulo, filmmaker Caetano's unflinching drama centres on those who live on the fringes of an ever-changing metropolis. Newly freed from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; abandoned by his parents, the wide-eyed young man finds solace in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his boisterous group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler significantly older than his age. Illuminated by the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and selling drugs.
A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation
The film illustrates 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 engages in his paid liaisons with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his customers, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, teeming with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a deep-seated solitude, as unmoored souls cling on to one another for momentary bliss.
"The city can be filled with danger, yet they are the place where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and financial instability. Threats from shady figures in the criminal underworld seem minor next to the anxiety about government monitoring and imprisonment, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers on patrol.
Baby is particularly impactful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have fallen through the cracks the social system. The film ultimately serves as a heartfelt exploration into survival, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of identity within a demanding urban landscape.
