Overview
- After a year on the festival circuit, the feature is now playing in select theaters through Oscilloscope Laboratories, IndieWire reported.
- The story centers on Rico, a 19-year-old who sells “nutcracker” cocktails on Orchard Beach, and Destiny, his newly pregnant girlfriend, with nutcrackers defined locally as boozy slushie drinks sold by vendors.
- Joel Alfonso Vargas shot on location in the Bronx using a lean, one-setup approach that favored long takes, improvised dialogue, and real beachgoers who wandered into scenes.
- Casting came together outside the usual channels as Juan Collado joined about 36 hours before cameras rolled and Destiny Checho was discovered on TikTok, with both shaping scenes through improv.
- Vargas says he drew on people he grew up around to make a neo-realist coming-of-age film, and early Sundance praise helped propel follow-up slots at Berlinale and New Directors/New Films toward a U.S. release.