“Season the moment!”
A Sloth Story, from directors Tania Vincent and Ricard Cussó, a battle plays out between the world of fast food and slow food. Actually, it’s really more a matter of how we approach life—full speed ahead, or stopping to smell the roses.
Laura is the teenage daughter in the family of sloths. She says they are the fastest sloths in the world as she recounts her parents reenacting the opening from Raiders of the Lost Ark. (That is one of many action movie references scattered through the film.) Her family runs a restaurant, but it is a slow food place. Her father wants to watch a flower bloom as it opens. Her mother uses her family’s book of recipes to create each meal. (Normal wait time, two hours.)
When a storm destroys their home, they take a beat-up food truck into Sanctuary City to set up shop there. What Laura loves about this is, first of all, that it is home to the fast food giant, Zoom Fuel, run by a sleek cheetah, named Dotti, whose TV commercials Laura adores. Laura also likes that she has met some friends who have invited her to be the bowler for their cricket team.
Zoom is having financial issues and Dotti is trying to make her Zoom food (filled with caffeine) addictive. But it tastes awful. After Laura makes a trip to Zoom, she finds the method that will help her family find success, even with her mother’s meticulous pace. But success for the family food truck means no time for cricket. Laura is in a quandary.
Dotti entices Laura to bring her family’s cookbook. When she balks, Dotti steals it, and the family must mount a rescue mission to retrieve it. We’ll end up being reminded (not subtly) of films such as Mission: Impossible, Night of the Living Dead, Braveheart, and The Matrix.
Laura is constantly at odds with her mother (who may be starting to have memory issues, but that really isn’t dealt with) over various topics, but from Laura’s perspective it is not being heard and respected. There is an obvious generational issue that is reflected in the parents’ heavily Hispanic accent, while Laura and her brother don’t have the accent. That also leads to a clash between holding to tradition and moving forward—both of which have their place.
While Laura wants to “seize the moment” (as the evil Dotti preaches), her father misstates the phrase as “season the moment”. Therein is the real issue of the film. There are times when action is needed—and the family finds its capabilities in both fast and slow moments. But there is also some time to stop and wait for a flower to open—or to plant a seed and know that it will grow into something. These are the moments that are “seasoned”. These are the times that make life delicious.
A Sloth Story is in theaters.
Photos courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment.
