All the Guac

Gio Fernandez, 23, has just graduated college into a world that is not at all what he expected. He has fallen into a fruitless cycle of sending job applications into a black hole, smoking copious amounts of marijuana, and being generally dissatisfied with the adult he's become. He works part-time for his father, Lu, in the family sandwich shop, ¡Tortas y Más! Despite the job security from his dad, Gio yearns for the self-fulfillment he thought society had promised him if he just stayed in school. Gio soon learns, however, that life has much bigger problems in store. Gio is told by his step-mother that Lu has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and is refusing life-saving surgery. The two of them convince Lu to begin treatment, but Gio discovers that the restaurant is deeply in debt, and will surely go under once the medical bills start to pile up. Gio's prior indifference towards the shop grows into major concern, and he decides he cannot let his dad's livelihood vanish along with his health. With the help of Lu's strong-willed and only other employee, Ava, and Gio's best friend and pot dealer, Dash, a new generation comes together to save Tempe, Arizona's fading Mexican sandwich haven. Sales explode when they embrace a fusion revival of Lu's menu by adding Ava's own bánh mì sandwiches, and it looks as though ¡Tortas y Más! is here to stay. Buoyed by the joy of their newfound success, an unexpected romance emerges between Gio and Ava. Dash is not at all pleased with this development, as he feels his best friend beginning to slip away. Gio is too happy with their progress to see the growing fissures, and Dash steers their winning streak into crisis when police discover he's been covertly selling marijuana through the restaurant all along. Gio finds himself ensnared in the legal and political firestorm of a return to "tough-on-crime" drug policies, and his father's business appears all but finished. Gio realizes just how good he had it when his biggest concern was finding a self-actualizing job; he now sees that you needn't always wait your turn for life to beat you down again. But Gio has also learned that the further we fall, the further we rise. Just as we can never say that darker days are completely behind us, we can never say that our best days don't lie ahead, and Gio's final act isn’t over by a long shot.