The Tamesis
coming of age drama Crazy bill payment (or fate, dile que no soy malo) Set in a sun-drenched neighborhood of the Bronx, 19-year-old Rico deals with the responsibilities of emerging adulthood over a suffocating summer. Featuring unflinching naturalism, effortless humor, and bracing humanity, writer-director Joel Alfonso Vargas’s debut feature, which won a Special Jury Prize for its casting at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and opens in New York this week, captures a New York City borough rarely seen with such tenderness and specialness.
“We wanted to highlight the beauty of the Bronx,” Vargas told Fashion last week, “because it’s so beautiful, not just in terms of the space, but in terms of its people. We wanted to honor the life here, this community that has historically been overlooked in film.”
For a story inspired by memories from his youth, finding locations with a sense of life was a priority. “We wanted to preserve the authenticity of the space, so I didn’t interfere too much,” he explains, noting that the people in the frame are usually members of the public rather than background actors. “We think this is more than just a story about a teenager and his family. We want it to be a record of the Bronx in a place and a time.”
Vargas looked for texture and eschewed the polished aesthetic he saw as emblematic of the borough’s corporate-driven gentrification. “The gentrification we have here is not as cute as coffee shops,” he clarifies. “Where I grew up, gentrification was more prevalent, which was CubeSmart warehouses and Targets—clean, clinical. To me, the real New York has a completely different look. Spaces tell stories, just like faces.”
He also looked for locations that required minimal lighting, in part to benefit his actors, some of whom were street actors and first-time film actors. “I don’t like dressing up or decorating the space at all, or even the lighting,” he said. “I never want these spaces to look like movie sets, especially when I’m working with non-actors. I don’t want people to be trapped in a movie. I want people to express themselves as much as possible.”
From the cramped family apartment to the salty Orchard Beach—where Rico (played by first-time film actor Juan Corrado) pushes a homemade illicit cocktail known as the Nutcracker under the unforgiving sun—vargas details some of the Bronx scenes set in the film below.
