A cheesy and digestible biopic that’s packaged puff.
2023 truly is the year of the entrepreneurial origin story. Ben Affleck turned up and gave us the backstory to the Air Jordan shoe in Air, Taron Egerton embroiled himself in a cold war thriller that led to gaining the rights of the aptly titled video game Tetris, Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel have recently chronicled the rise and fall of a mobile phone brand in Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry, and now Eva Longoria has stepped into the director’s chair to give us the supposed origins of none other than a snack, the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Clearly, there is a trend here that suggests audiences are yearning for more films about miscellaneous products and their varying inception points. Maybe, or more likely, climbing the corporate ladder is such a tried-and-true formula that it has almost become a crutch to lean on in the biopic lexicon.
Flamin’ Hot, based off the memoir, ‘A Boy, a Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive by Richard Montañez’ tells the story of Mr Montañez (Jesse Garcia) and his efforts to help create the titular spicy snack line for PepsiCo subsidiary, Frito-Lay. Before even getting into plot semantics, if you have any grasp on the conventions of the underdog story, then this fable will neither surprise nor shock, leaning on the aforementioned biopic crutch that leaves little room for deviation. It begins in 1966 in Southern California, a young Richard is being picked on in school, and the best part of his day always sitting down at lunchtime to eat his homemade burrito. When he learns that he can ward off his antagonists using the power of food, he begins to sell his lunch to the other children – in particular the bullies. It is here he meets his future wife Judy (Annie Gonzalez) before promptly being arrested for his profit-making endeavours. No one believes how he came into such lucrative wealth at such a young age. Cut to marriage and two children later, and the Montañez family are struggling to make ends meet.
When Richard gets help from his friend Tony Romero (Bobby Soto) to secure a low-level job at Frito-Lay, business shenanigans ensue as Richard learns to ‘think like a CEO’ – he has to find a way to help his family during a Reagan era that’s economically straining both his vocation and home. Insert a certain spicy snack that would soon change the world. Longoria gets to have a bit of fun once all the groundwork is laid, managing to vibrantly play with montage and voiceover to convey the joy of bringing a Hispanic perspective into the corporate world.
There is a certain trepidation toward the factual evidence of Montañez’s true life story. PepsiCo issued a statement in 2021 admitting that while Richard was a valued contributor to the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, there was a “separate division team developing a spicy product offering” around the same time. Going into any biopic should always allow some wiggle room on veracity, but it is important audiences should know this story being played out may not be as true a story as what it says on the package. As for the actual contents of the film itself, it’s small and fine enough that it will only ruffle a few feathers. It is quite cheesy at times (if you’ll pardon the pun) and what plays for comedy ends up feeling a bit naff at times.
On the performance side, Tony Shalhoub as Roger Enrico has quite an engaging screen presence playing the gusto of a PepsiCo CEO with vigour and charm. Annie Gonzalez helps ground the film and her absorbing chemistry with Garcia helps elevate the lighter and more superfluous material. When it wants to be a love story the film thrives most. Dennis Haysbert brings some humility to factory worker Clarence, adding some much-needed solidarity between the Black and Hispanic communities facing white authority.
Flamin’ Hot is a somewhat sub-standard biopic, but a more likeable comedy-drama. It allows Longoria to thematically ground the film using the pleasure of exploring a Hispanic voice in corporate America, but it still hides in the shadow of a more hardworking truth. While it’s admirable to add cultural weight to the flavour of a snack, sometimes you’re just left with salty fingers and a bag full of air.
