Writers and Director: Joel Alfonso Vargas
The struggles of working-class Americans to afford even life’s basic is explored in Joel Alfonso Vargas’ drama Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025, following nineteen-year-old Riccardo (Juan Collado) over the space of one summer as he tries and largely fails to live up to his responsibilities. A gritty drama in many ways with moments of comedy about the limitations of the gig economic, for second generation immigrant families, Vargas’ film builds robust and angry characters who cannot see any way out of their circumstances and in which each generation repeats the mistakes of the past.
Revealing that his 16-year-old girlfriend is pregnant, Riccardo moves Destiny (Destiny Checo) into the home he still shares with his single mother and sister Sally. A place filled with arguments and disappointment, Destiny expects Riccardo to support her entirely and demands his constant attention to her needs. Giving up his job selling drinks on the beach, Riccardo gets a job in cafe but the call of his old life persists and he avoids going home to stay out drinking.
One of Mad Bills to Pay’s strongest strands depicts the pressure Riccardo feels to deliver, a sudden weight that has dropped unexpectedly onto his life which overwhelms him. So amidst the endless shouting – and about 70% of the dialogue is yelled during the many staged arguments – the audience also observe the pressure that Riccardo feels in moments of introspective silence as he sits slumped on steps and in corners trying to make sense of his decisions and how he can make the future work. He is not an easy character to love; he wanted the baby as Destiny frequently reminds him but he also appears sometimes feckless, unable to knuckle down in the way that his mum and girlfriend demand.
And the film follows this trajectory as Riccardo essentially battles with himself and his impulses to try to be the better person he aspires to. Yet it is not clear in Vargas’ outcome that Riccardo succeeds, he makes steps certainly, but both father and mother to be remain uncertain about their decision and less than excited by the prospect of what’s to come. It gives the film credible authenticity, at least in exploring the dilemma’s faced by young parents in a place where work is seasonal and low paid at best – even Sally complains that their mother works all the time and neglects them, is this what Riccardo and Destiny have in store for their child?
Vargas’ dialogue feels improvised, reminiscent occasionally of Sean Baker’s fast-talking Anora from last year’s Festival which had a similar kind of aggressively paced patter as situations go from zero to one hundred within seconds. A little more nuance would help vary the pace, perhaps seeing Riccardo speak with his mother or to a friend about some of the fears and the things he is running from, but Mad Bills to Pay certainly traps its characters in their world with no way out even for the next generation.
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
