“Do I have the drive?” Richard Montañez, played by Jesse Garcia, asks his wife, Judy (Annie Gonzalez), in the dramatic comedy, “Flamin’ Hot.” The actor Eva Longoria directs this film that tells the true story of Montañez, on whose memoir the plot is based. Montañez is applying for a job at the Frito-Lay plant located in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and is unsure about the word “drive.” However, soon enough he’ll become the definition of it, moving up from being a janitor and becoming a family man behind a Cheetos flavor that would increase the snack maker’s reach and launch Montañez’s marketing career.
The economically struggling couple possesses poignant chemistry, making the story even more authentic. They met as children; Montañez was being bullied for being the child of farm workers. Judy had a bruise, suggesting they might have more in common than simply being the brown kids at a predominately white elementary school. Montañez’s youth is recounted in a voice-over that alternates between sometimes boastful, sometimes self-deprecating, and is always upbeat. This narration softens the edges of his childhood, which include routine bigotry and outright racism, but also include brutality and judgment from his father, Vacho (Emilio Rivera).
Montañez grew up between the late ’60s and early ’70s, and his upbringing was not centered on the pride and resistance of the Chicano Movement, though it was adjacent. As he explains in an account that oscillates between the present and the past, from the biographical to the fantastical, he made some friends in a gang. However, it wasn’t until Judy got pregnant that the couple agreed to make a change.
From the beginning of his time at Frito-Lay, Montañez is an eager learner, asking about chemical processes and even celebrating an industrial power washer. His supervisor (Matt Walsh) finds his curiosity annoying, his friend who got him the job (Bobby Soto) is preoccupied, and the engineer (Dennis Haysbert), who knows the plant inside out, initially mentors him with suspicion.
The titular flavor, “Flamin’ Hot,” took years to develop. Montañez begins his tenure at Frito-Lay in the mid-70s, and in the early ’90s, when the plant is facing hard times, his inspiration comes from the Mexican street corn elote. An executive, Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub), coaches the beleaguered work force to “think like a CEO,” and the scenes that follow of Montañez bringing his hot idea to reality, assisted by his family, charm the viewer as intended. “It burns good,” the smallest Montañez (Brice Gonzalez) proclaims as the family samples the seasonings.
Longoria directs from a screenplay written by Lewis Colick and Linda Yvette Chávez and includes lessons in self-esteem throughout. This film is Longoria’s feature directing debut, and the women are not just run-of-the-mill catalysts, as both Montañez’s mother and Judy play essential roles. Nonetheless, should it come as a surprise that a movie with so much hype might have a few fictionalized elements? If you delve too deeply into the facts that the movie is based on, you might find enough confusion over whether Montañez actually invented the flavor (as claimed) to make your conscience mildly cringe.
Flamin’ Hot
Rated PG-13 for some strong language and drug talk. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Disney+ and Hulu.
