🔗 Share this article Baby Review: An Astute Depiction of Queer Brazilian Hustlers Adrift in the System Channelling the urban restlessness and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama centres on those who exist on the margins of an ever-changing metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; abandoned by his parents, the innocent young man finds solace in the arms of others. On an night on the town with his boisterous group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their first meeting is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and drug dealing. A Study of Empathy Instead of Exploitation The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding rather than as a exploitative warning story. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and endearing innocence. To his clients, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also moments of care. In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, filled with crowded backstreets and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for temporary happiness. "The city can be fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can find their own family, too." A Complicated Relationship of Affection and Power Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a sheltering paternal presence to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by envy and financial instability. Intimidation from nefarious characters in the criminal underworld pale in comparison to the fear of institutional observation and imprisonment, symbolized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds. Baby is particularly impactful as an astute portrait of the disenfranchised individuals who have slipped through the gaps the established structure. The film stands as a poignant examination into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of purpose within a unforgiving urban landscape.