Baby Review: An Astute Depiction of Queer Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System
Evoking the city's relentless energy and pulsating life of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s unflinching drama focuses on those who exist on the margins of an ever-changing metropolis. Newly freed from 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 finds solace in the arms of others.
On an late-night excursion with his boisterous group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler more than twice his age. Shrouded in the pulsating light of a adult movie theater, their first meeting is physical and passionate, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the clandestine realm of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.
A Portrait of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding rather than as a melodramatic morality play. Now adopting the moniker Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his clients, Wellington lends not only his youth and his body, but also moments of care.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, teeming with bustling alleyways and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as adrift individuals grasp at one another for momentary bliss.
"The streets can be filled with danger, yet they are the place where they can discover chosen kin, too."
A Complex Relationship of Love and Control
Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their bond is sabotaged by jealousy and monetary insecurity. Dangers posed by dubious individuals in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the anxiety about state surveillance and imprisonment, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers on patrol.
Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the social system. The film functions as a poignant exploration into making ends meet, found community, and the pursuit of self within a harsh urban landscape.
