The coming-of-age drama Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) unfolds across sun-soaked neighborhoods in the Bronx, as 19-year-old Rico navigates the responsibilities of imminent adulthood over one stifling summer. Rendered with unflinching naturalism, effortless humor, and bracing humanity, the debut feature from writer-director Joel Alfonso Vargas\u2014which won a special jury prize for its ensemble cast at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and opens this week in New York\u2014captures a New York City borough rarely framed with such tenderness and specificity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking to highlight the beauty of the Bronx,\u201d Vargas told Vogue last week, \u201cbecause it\u2019s very beautiful, not just in terms of spaces but also its people. We wanted to monumentalize life here, this community that historically has been neglected by cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a story inspired by memories of his youth, finding shooting locations that felt lived-in was imperative. \u201cWe wanted to preserve the authenticity of the spaces, so I didn\u2019t intervene too much,\u201d he explained, pointing out that often the people in frame were members of the public, not background actors. \u201cWe saw this not just as a story about a teen and his family. We wanted it to be a document of the Bronx in a place and time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas looked for texture, eschewing the polished aesthetic he views as a symbol of the borough\u2019s corporate-driven gentrification. \u201cThe kind of gentrification we get here is not the cute kind with the coffee shops,\u201d he clarified. \u201cThe gentrification that\u2019s more prevalent where I grew up is the CubeSmart storages and the Targets\u2014clean and clinical. The real New York, to me, has a completely different look. Spaces tell stories, as much as faces do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also sought locations that required minimal lighting, in part to benefit his cast, some of whom were streetcast, first-time film actors. \u201cI don\u2019t like to touch up or embellish the space at all, not even with lighting,\u201d he said. \u201cI never want the spaces to look like film sets, especially if I\u2019m working with a non-actor. I don\u2019t want people to get in their heads about being in a movie. I want people to show up as themselves as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a cramped family apartment to the salt-laced sprawl of Orchard Beach\u2014where Rico (played with irrepressible bravado by first-time film actor Juan Collado) hustles homemade illicit cocktails dubbed nutcrackers under the relentless sun\u2014below Vargas details some of the film\u2019s real-life Bronx locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coming-of-age drama Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) unfolds across sun-soaked neighborhoods…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,15424,19769,129,131,130,4924,990],"class_list":{"0":"post-200547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-storytypedeep-dive","13":"tag-textabovecenterfullbleed","14":"tag-the-bronx","15":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","16":"tag-the-bronx-news","17":"tag-tv-movies","18":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}