Mad Bills to Pay: (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)(2026)

1h 41m
- Comedy
- Drama

Release Date: Apr 17, 2026 | Limited

Rico is a nineteen-year-old Dominican American in the Bronx spending his summer hustling homemade cocktails out of a cooler on Orchard Beach, chasing girls, and dodging his mother and sister's complaints about his aimlessness. When his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Destiny, tells him she's pregnant and moves into his family's apartment, his carefree days start to unravel—a coming-of-age story about love, family, and the bill that eventually comes due.

Releases

Original Release | Apr 17, 2026 | Opens in 08days

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Director & Top Cast

Joel Alfonso Vargas
Director

Juan Collado
Rico

Destiny Checo
Destiny

Yohanna Florentino
Mami, Andrea

Nathaly Navarro
Sally

Gregory Requena
Police Officer 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States,United Kingdom

Language: English,Spanish

Summaries

Plot Summary

Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) is a 2025 American drama written and directed by Joel Alfonso Vargas in his feature directorial debut. The film is an extension of his 2023 short May It Go Beautifully For You, Rico, which played at Locarno. Juan Collado stars as Rico, a nineteen-year-old Dominican American who spends his summer selling illegal homemade cocktails known as Nutcrackers on Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Destiny Checo plays Destiny, his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, whose unexpected pregnancy forces Rico to confront adulthood. Shot over sixteen days on location in the Bronx using street-cast actors and an improvisational approach, and produced by Killer Films, Perpetuum Films, and Watermark Media. The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025, in the NEXT section, where it won the NEXT Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. It went on to screen in the Berlinale's Perspectives section. The film is scheduled for a US theatrical release on April 17, 2026, opening in New York at Film Forum and in the Bronx. Runs 1 hour 41 minutes. For viewers drawn to grounded, community-specific indie filmmaking and coming-of-age stories rooted in working-class New York.

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Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (2025) tracks Rico (Juan Collado), a carefree 19-year-old Dominican-American hustling homemade cocktails on Orchard Beach, until girlfriend Destiny (Destiny Checho) gets pregnant and moves in with his Bronx family. Youthful dreams clash with poverty, family tensions, absent father figures, and cycles of fights, jobs, fines, and makeups as Rico grapples with impending fatherhood.