🔗 Share this article Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the Established Order Channelling the metropolitan unease and dynamic spirit of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s gripping drama focuses on those who live on the fringes of an constantly evolving 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 late-night excursion with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a muscular, charming hustler more than twice his age. Shrouded in the pulsating light of a adult movie theater, their introductory rendezvous is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo promptly ushers Wellington to the shadowy world of prostitution and drug dealing. A Study of Empathy Instead of Sensationalism The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding instead of as a exploitative warning story. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with cocky bravado and endearing innocence. To his patrons, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness. In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, filled with busy lanes and vibrant storefronts, there’s a persistent isolation, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for temporary happiness. "The city might be filled with danger, yet they are where they can discover chosen kin, too." A Complex Relationship of Affection and Power Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by jealousy and economic precarity. Threats from shady figures in the underworld seem minor next to the fear of state surveillance and jail time, epitomized by the hovering figures of police officers making their rounds. Baby is particularly impactful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the established structure. The film ultimately serves as a poignant examination into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the search for identity within a harsh urban landscape.