🔗 Share this article Baby Review: An Astute Portrait of Queer Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the System Capturing the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, director Marcelo Caetano's unflinching 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) finds himself at a crossroads; left behind by his parents, the impressionable young man finds solace in the arms of others. On an late-night excursion with his lively group of queer and non-binary friends, Wellington crosses paths with Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler significantly older than his age. Illuminated by the pulsating light of a adult movie theater, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the underground scene of prostitution and drug dealing. A Study of Empathy Instead of Sensationalism Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy rather than as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now using the alias Baby, he enters his commercial trysts with swaggering confidence and endearing innocence. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness. In the electrifying chaos of São Paulo, teeming with bustling alleyways and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as rootless people hold fast to one another for fleeting joy. "The urban landscape might be riddled with risk, yet they are where they can find their own family, too." A Complicated Relationship of Love and Control Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and monetary insecurity. Threats from shady figures in the criminal underworld pale in comparison to the dread of government monitoring and imprisonment, symbolized by the constant sight of police officers on patrol. Baby is especially potent as a keen observation of the forgotten souls who have fallen through the cracks the system. The film stands as a poignant exploration into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the quest for self within a demanding urban landscape.