‘Mad Bills to Pay’ Review: Soon-to-Be Father in the Bronx Struggles to Stay the Course in Impressively Acted Vérité Drama

variety.com:

Carlos Aguilar Watching a friend be berated by his mother or witnessing a couple’s heated public argument comes with the uncomfortable feeling that one is intruding in a private matter.

Those outbursts of emotion, often reserved for the eyes and ears of those involved, are magnified via a potent cinematic voice in writer-director Joel Alfonso Vargas’ impressively conceived and superbly acted social realist debut “Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo).” Expanded from the short film “May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico” which premiered in 2024, “Mad Bills” opens with a title card that warns “the working man is a sucker,” a succinct adage that encompasses the verité drama’s thematic essence: the tug of war between a person’s agency over their actions and their powerlessness in the face of socioeconomic forces preventing them from overcoming their precarious circumstances.

Nineteen-year-old Bronx native Rico (Juan Collado) earns cash selling “nutcrackers,” cleverly named, home-mixed, illegal alcoholic drinks on the beach (Kirby Punch for a bright red concoction, Lemonhead Pikachu for a yellow one).

At home, where multiple Dominican flags showcase the family’s pride for their heritage, tensions flare up with his hardworking, understandably short-tempered mother (Yohanna Florentino) and his argumentative teen sister Sally (Nathaly Navarro) over Rico’s marijuana habit and irregular employment.