🔗 Share this article The Film Baby Review: An Astute Depiction of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Survivors Lost in the System Evoking the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's bracing drama centres on those who inhabit the outskirts of an perpetually shifting metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (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 lively group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington crosses paths with Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler more than twice his age. Bathed in the flickering glow of a XXX cinema, their initial encounter is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the shadowy world of sex work and narcotics trafficking. A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with brash fearlessness and poignant gullibility. To his customers, 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 deep-seated solitude, as adrift individuals hold fast to one another for fleeting joy. "The urban landscape might be fraught with peril, yet they are where they can find their own family, too." A Complex Dynamic of Love and Control Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by possessiveness and financial instability. Dangers posed by shady figures in the underworld seem minor next to the anxiety about state surveillance and incarceration, represented by the constant sight of police officers on patrol. Baby is particularly impactful as a perceptive study of the lost people who have fallen through the cracks the system. The film ultimately serves as a poignant examination into resilience, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of identity within a demanding urban landscape.