With 'Mad Bills to Pay,' Joel Alfonso Vargas aims to rep the real Dominican Bronx

A summertime staple successful the Bronx, nutcrackers are colorful home-brewed cocktails sold informally. They’re also, according to Dominican American filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas, an underground taste touchstone, 1 helium became acquainted with arsenic a teenager.

“The feline who sold weed besides sold nutcrackers,” helium says via Zoom. “You deed idiosyncratic up and they’ll travel with a backpack.”

One of these vicinity entrepreneurs is the protagonist of Vargas’ debut feature, “Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que nary soy malo),” which premiered astatine the Sundance Film Festival successful 2025 and is present yet playing successful theaters.

Rico (Juan Collado), 19, earns currency by dragging a cooler astir the formation offering nutcrackers. But erstwhile his large 16-year-old woman Destiny (Destiny Checo) moves into the flat helium shares with his parent and sister, Rico’s looming work arsenic a soon-to-be-father forces him to question much ceremonial employment. His idiosyncratic struggles increasing up with an absent dada and being a young antheral of colour who comes from a low-income household soon instrumentality a toll connected him.

Though Vargas, 34, didn’t go a precocious parent, “Mad Bills to Pay” emerged from memories of men helium knew who weren’t that antithetic from his main character.

“I grew up astir a batch of Rico types,” helium says. “These guys who thin to self-sabotage for immoderate reason, which the movie is trying to understand. There were a batch of these types of characters wrong my person circle, and I was drawn to them, possibly due to the fact that they had a assurance that I astir apt lacked.”

A kid of immigrants, Vargas grew up successful Marble Hill a vicinity adjacent to Inwood and Washington Heights, areas collectively known arsenic small Dominican Republic. For our chat, Vargas connected from his mother’s place. She inactive lives successful the aforesaid nationalist lodging analyzable wherever she raised the filmmaker and his siblings arsenic a azygous mother.

“Growing up successful the Bronx, particularly successful the vicinity that I grew up in, everyone is telling you, ‘You person to leave. There’s nary accidental for you here,’ and I consciousness that it’s benignant of tragic and bittersweet that that is the narrative,” Vargas explains. “The Bronx is simply a beauteous place, and I privation radical to spot that quality successful the film.”

Take the present demolished Coliseum Theater connected 181st Street, which served arsenic a foundational abstraction for Vargas’ way to cinema. That’s wherever helium watched James Cameron’s “Titanic” and Danny Boyle’s “The Beach.” Later on, his older member introduced him to different mature narratives.

“He was a cinephile without us, astatine the time, adjacent knowing what that word meant. He would bring backmost truly bully films. He loved the gangster genre,” Vargas says. “We were watching a batch of [Martin] Scorsese, and besides a batch of Black neorealism. We watched ‘Menace to Society’ and ‘Poetic Justice’ and films of this type.”

And portion a precocious schoolhouse people connected American cinema successful the 1970s further opened his eyes, it was lone erstwhile helium attended Lafayette College successful Easton, Pa., to survey engineering that Vargas started to see filmmaking arsenic a superior vocation option.

Back then, helium was considering becoming a cinematographer, but past Donald Trump was elected president successful 2016. As radical of colour successful wide and Latinos specifically were being dehumanized, helium reconsidered however helium wished to prosecute with storytelling.

“I [thought], ‘How tin I utilize my skills arsenic a filmmaker and each these experiences not truthful overmuch to advocate, due to the fact that I ne'er privation to springiness the answers, but I consciousness I person a work to correspond things accurately,’” helium says.

That feeling was exacerbated by “The Get Down,” a Netflix amusement released successful 2016 acceptable successful the ‘70s South Bronx.

“I retrieve watching the archetypal occurrence of that and being like, ‘This isn’t however radical talk. This isn’t however radical move,’” helium says. “It conscionable felt truthful inauthentic to me.”

For Vargas, “Mad Bills to Pay” came aft directing fractional a twelve abbreviated films implicit a decade, conscionable erstwhile helium was leaving his 20s behind. In hindsight, helium said, the communicative of Rico, a teen trying to measurement up to the demands of fatherhood portion being ill-equipped and lacking maturity to navigate the concern constructively, carried idiosyncratic undertones.

“I was trying to reconcile the lack of my ain dada with my ain 30-year-old aforesaid coming of property and reasoning astir becoming a dad,” Vargas explained. “I was past successful a semipermanent narration and these conversations were becoming a batch much existent successful my head.”

Originally, Vargas had formed a non-actor who had precocious go a begetter and whose existent beingness intimately resembled the fiction, but helium exited the task aft realizing it would instrumentality him distant from his family. Vargas had to pivot conscionable days earlier shooting began. Collado took connected the challenge. Like the filmmaker, Collado besides grew up without a father, which made the movie personal.

For the Spanish-language parenthetical successful the film’s title, Vargas referenced the lyrics of the bachata opus “Loco de Amor” by Dominican instrumentalist Luis Vargas (no familial relation). “Tu que sabes lo que hago dile que nary soy malo,” the Dominican creator croons successful the pleadingly romanticist track. In the film, Vargas interprets the enactment “dile que nary soy malo” (tell them I’m not a atrocious guy), arsenic if Rico were penning a missive from the aboriginal imploring Destiny to vouch for his tarnished character.

“When you spot it successful the rubric design, it’s ever handwritten. In my caput this is simply a ‘P.S.’ that Rico writes astatine the extremity of a missive successful the future, and possibly the idiosyncratic he’s referring to is the kid that helium had with Destiny,” Vargas explains. “We don’t cognize wherever that missive is being sent from. Maybe he’s successful prison, possibly helium moved to different state, but that’s the idea.”

The bilingual household successful “Mad Bills to Pay,” wherever Rico’s parent (Yohanna Florentino) lone speaks Spanish, mirrors however Vargas was raised. Though Vargas’ parent was educated successful the American schoolhouse system, she made a constituent of preserving her family’s parent tongue. “My grandparents lone spoke Spanish, truthful my ma grew up speaking Spanish and being precise comfy with it,” Vargas says. “And past erstwhile we were young, and inactive today, she lone speaks to america successful Spanish, truthful that we could person that aforesaid comfortableness with the language.”

Vargas is besides fluent successful Spanish due to the fact that helium lived successful the Dominican Republic for the archetypal 4 years of his life. His parents’ dysfunctional relationships made for an unsafe situation astatine home, truthful the determination was made to nonstop him to the Caribbean federation to enactment with relatives.

“I learned a batch of Spanish implicit determination and I learned a batch of different things. They told maine that erstwhile I came backmost I was a small rascal, due to the fact that I was swearing,” Vargas recalls laughing. “My grandma had a batch to bash with our upbringing, truthful I spot a batch of her successful Yohanna, the parent character. I was trying to marque the movie arsenic existent to my ain lived acquisition arsenic possible.”

For Vargas, it was important that the movie felt “down to earth,” and accessible for each audiences. During production, his parent inquired astir the film’s content. Vargas, incapable to explicate it, showed her a country wherever Rico’s household is arguing astir a vaccine for the newborn child. “She was wholly taken aback by it. She was like, ‘Wow, this is however it truly is. You truly captured the essence,’” helium remembered her saying. Now, listening to his parent eloquently picture the movie to different radical brings him large satisfaction.

“Last nighttime determination was a neighbour who came by the flat and asked what [“Mad Bills to Pay”] is about. I’m unspeakable astatine summarizing films, truthful I was like, ‘Ma, you bash it.’ And she was like, ‘Se trata de la vida cotidiana’ [It’s astir quotidian life].” helium recalls. “She was talking astir it the mode that I would constitute astir it academically. It’s truthful chill to spot that it’s understood connected that level by my ma who’s not a cinephile, and by hold different radical similar her.”

“Mad Bills to Pay” opens astatine the Los Feliz Theatre connected May 2. Special screenings at Laemmle locations May 4-6, earlier playing astatine the Laemmle NoHo 7 and Monica Film Center starting May 8.