The Film Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of Queer Brazilian Survivors Lost in the Established Order
Channelling the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, filmmaker Caetano's bracing drama focuses on those who live on the fringes of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Newly freed from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; left behind by his parents, the innocent young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler more than twice his age. Illuminated by the wavering neon of a XXX cinema, their introductory rendezvous is physical and passionate, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.
A Study of Understanding Instead of Exploitation
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with tender empathy 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 clients, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness.
In the hectic energy of São Paulo, filled with bustling alleyways and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as rootless people grasp at one another for fleeting joy.
"The city are filled with danger, yet they are where they can forge familial bonds, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Affection and Power
Ronaldo is both a lover and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and financial instability. Threats from nefarious characters in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the fear of government monitoring and imprisonment, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is particularly impactful as a keen observation of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the established structure. The film functions as a moving examination into survival, found community, and the search for self within a harsh urban landscape.
