The Film Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the Established Order
Channelling the city's relentless energy and pulsating life of São Paulo, filmmaker Caetano's gripping drama focuses 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 wide-eyed young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.
On an night on the town with his boisterous group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the flickering glow of a adult movie theater, their initial encounter is intimate and charged, with an hint of risk. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and selling drugs.
A Portrait of Empathy Instead of Exploitation
The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now going by the name of Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with brash fearlessness and poignant gullibility. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also moments of care.
In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, filled with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a deep-seated solitude, as adrift individuals cling on to one another for momentary bliss.
"The city might be fraught with peril, yet they are also the space 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 jealousy and financial instability. Dangers posed by nefarious characters in the shadow economy pale in comparison to the dread of state surveillance and imprisonment, epitomized by the constant sight of police officers on patrol.
Baby is especially potent as a perceptive study of the lost people who have been failed by the social system. The film functions as a poignant examination into resilience, non-biological kinship, and the quest for purpose within a unforgiving urban landscape.
