‘Mad Bills To Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)’: Sundance Review

Dir/scr: Joel Alfonso Vargas. US. 2025. 101mins

Author/director Joel Alfonso Vargas’ debut Mad Payments To Pay (or Future, dile que no soy malo) is an altogether extra light viewing expertise than its action-packed title suggests. This amiable, down-to-earth tackle a younger New Yorker’s struggles to discover a function for himself has its flaws, however they are often forgiven on account of Rico (Juan Collado), its shambolic, supremely chill and ever-present protagonist. This, plus Vargas’s intimate, insider tackle his Dominican American group and a few fascinating visuals add as much as a minor-key however profitable drama.

The atmospherics of a spread of Bronx settings are superbly rendered

The characteristic is an extension of Bronx-born Vargas’s 2023 brief Might It Go Fantastically For You, Rico, which performed in Locarno, profitable him a directing award. That includes the identical characters, solid and places, Mad Payments To Pay will go to the Berlinale’s new Views part after its Sundance premiere, and will go down effectively with audiences at each.

Nineteen-year-old slacker Rico (Juan Collado) leads a fairly aimless life, smoking weed, promoting home-made juice and liquor cocktails referred to as Nutcrackers on Orchard Seashore in The Bronx, and hanging out with buddies. His mom Andrea (Yohanna Florentino) and sister Sally (Nathaly Navarro) each contemplate Rico to be mainly ineffective and are usually not shy about telling him so, however regardless of the ear-splitting shouting matches that pepper the movie, their house can also be a spot for tenderness and celebration.

Issues change when, out of the blue, Rico broadcasts that his 16-year-old girlfriend Future (Future Checo) is pregnant. The information is thrilling to Rico, who begins shouting “I’m gonna be a Dad!” to anybody who will hear, however much less so to the ladies in his life. Presumably thrown out of her house by her circle of relatives – a serious occasion  barely talked about by a script that’s generally too elliptical – Future involves stay with Rico and household, telling him she trusts him.

Issues take a melancholy flip as Future turns into extra proactive, extra important and extra conscious of what having a baby will really contain. Rico’s everlasting optimism begins to fray. He tries to shed his slacker standing by discovering common work as a cleaner, however spends an evening in jail and begins to drink an excessive amount of of his personal concoction. In one of many extra touching scenes, Rico tries reaching out to his personal long-absent father, with out success: that is the function mannequin that Rico by no means had.

The movie’s strongest scenes are additionally its quietest, whether or not we’re monitoring the considerate Rico by way of the streets or overhearing his tender, loving conversations with Future. The a number of scenes that includes household fights really feel uncooked and genuine, generally painfully so, as a result of they appear part-improvised: however at instances they drag on too lengthy, an indication of a bigger downside with pacing and rhythm.

What brings all of it again from the sting are the performances, particularly that of Collado. He brings to Rico a fascinating stoner attraction, remaining defiantly chilled even when the world appears to be falling aside round him. There’s a tragedy on the coronary heart of this younger man that makes him a extra complicated and deeper determine than he might sound at first, as a result of he’s craving to be a father; one thing that, socially and economically, his world makes very troublesome. Different performances, a few of them from non-professionals, are persuasive, heightening that fly-on-the-wall really feel.

The movie is artfully shot by Rufai Ajala totally on fastened digital camera, to fascinating impact. Usually the angle is so low, as if the digital camera was hidden, bringing an additional layer of documentary realism to the scene. At one second, Future, sitting silent within the midst of one other household row, turns into the calm eye of the storm. Such is the intimacy that at one level, a thrown shirt wobbles the digital camera. Typically, a scene will play out inside its single body after which the digital camera will proceed to roll for just a few seconds on an empty tableau.

The atmospherics of a spread of Bronx settings are superbly rendered, whether or not within the shadowy, soft-lit interiors of the household house, the brilliant sunshine of Orchard seashore and the boardwalk bars, or the darkish vacancy of the backstreets at night time. Unsurprisingly music is vital, that includes hip-hop, rap and generally older Latino tunes: even Besame Mucho will get a short outing. Niklas Sandahl’s orchestral rating is most evident throughout a visible homage to the Bronx however, with its plucked harp and rising crescendos, it really feel oddly over-the-top.