Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of Queer Brazilian Survivors Adrift in the Established Order
Channelling the city's relentless energy and pulsating life of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama zooms in on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; abandoned by his parents, the wide-eyed young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his rowdy group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the wavering neon of a adult movie theater, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of sex work and drug dealing.
A Study of Empathy Rather Than Sensationalism
The director portrays Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his customers, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, filled with bustling alleyways and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as rootless people grasp at one another for momentary bliss.
"The urban landscape are fraught with peril, yet they are where they can discover chosen kin, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is both a lover and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by envy and economic precarity. Intimidation from dubious individuals in the criminal underworld pale in comparison to the dread of government monitoring and incarceration, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers in the area.
Baby is particularly impactful as an astute portrait of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the established structure. The film stands as a moving look into resilience, non-biological kinship, and the search for self within a demanding urban landscape.