🔗 Share this article The Film Baby Review: An Astute Depiction of Queer Brazilian Survivors Lost in the Established Order Channelling the urban restlessness and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s unflinching drama centres on those who exist on the margins of an ever-changing metropolis. Newly freed from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (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 night on the town with his rowdy group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic 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 clandestine realm of the sex trade and drug dealing. A Portrait of Empathy Instead of Sensationalism 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 enters his commercial trysts with swaggering confidence and poignant gullibility. To his patrons, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also instances of tenderness. In the hectic energy of São Paulo, teeming with crowded backstreets and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for fleeting joy. "The streets 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 sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by jealousy and financial instability. Dangers posed by shady figures in the criminal underworld pale in comparison to the fear of institutional observation and imprisonment, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds. Baby is particularly impactful as a keen observation of the lost people who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film functions as a heartfelt look into survival, chosen family, and the quest for identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.