Baby Review: An Astute Depiction of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the System

Capturing the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s unflinching drama centres on those who exist on the margins of an ever-changing metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) stands at a pivotal juncture; abandoned by his parents, the innocent young man finds solace in the arms of others.

On an night on the town with his boisterous group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an hint of risk. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the shadowy world of the sex trade and drug dealing.

A Portrait of Understanding Rather Than Exploitation

Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy instead of as a melodramatic morality play. Now going by the name of Baby, he enters his commercial trysts with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his customers, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.

In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, teeming with busy lanes and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for fleeting joy.

"The city are fraught with peril, yet they are also the space where they can forge familial bonds, too."

A Complex Relationship of Love and Control

Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and economic precarity. Intimidation from dubious individuals in the criminal underworld seem minor next to the anxiety about institutional observation and jail time, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers on patrol.

Baby is especially potent as a keen observation of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film ultimately serves as a heartfelt look into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of self within a unforgiving urban landscape.