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Hot flamin’ Now on Hulu and Disney+, it’s a fun, cool, and spicy movie. Eva Longoria’s first feature film chronicles the somewhat exaggerated life of Richard Montañez, a Mexican-American man who worked his way up from being a bouncer at Frito-Lay to becoming one of its top executives. According to him, this is because he invented a classic and ubiquitous snack food – Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Exaggeration aside, the film is a vibrant, feel-good comedy that seems like the perfect way to start summer. A celebration of Mexican culture as well as a working-class feel, Flamin’ Hot feels very different from the other ‘product movies’ this year (Tetris, BlackBerry, Air), which is its own thing. This is mostly thanks to the wonderful Jesse Garcia as Richard, whose joy and curiosity is absolutely infectious. The rest of the cast is also stellar, including Annie Gonzalez as Judy Montañez, Emilio Rivera as Fatcho Montañez, Dennis Haysbert as Clarence C. Baker, Emmy Award winner Tony Shalhoub as Roger Enrico, and Matt Walsh as Lonnie Mason.
You can learn more about the movie, its cast, crew, and even Richard himself in this exclusive behind-the-scenes clip Hot flamin’.
Go behind Cheetos
Hot flamin’ is an interesting mix of biography, fiction, and social commentary, but for most people, this will be a really entertaining and fun way to start the summer. To quote from our review:
Longoria and a great help with the acting Hot flamin’ It stands out from the rest of the pack (or the pack, in this case) by focusing less on products and more on people. This whimsical biopic of Richard Montañez and his wife, Judy, is meant to be a celebration of their Mexican culture and working-class values, not a long cheesy bite of Frito-Lay product status.
While the veracity of the story behind the film has been questioned, Eva Longoria and Jesse Garcia speak eloquently that the film makes no claim to objective truth along the lines of a documentary. Longoria says this is a vision of Richard’s life as he sees it. Longoria told MovieWeb:
“That’s 1000% real Richard Montañez, and he was very involved. You know, he’s got two memoirs. He’s got two books. He’s been at Pepsi for 42 years and, like, we’ve got a lot of stuff to dump. And then he sits with him, and he’s just a wealth of Information and knowledge and vocal languages, and he’s so funny. He has a really witty and charming tone. And so the minute I sat down with him, I was like, I want the movie to be in his view. It has to be in his view. I want to be in his mind. He had all of these stories, as if he thought a meeting room was a room full of paintings […] And maybe what makes the movie funnier is that we’re in Richard’s head 100% of the time.”
Hot flamin’, from Searchlight Pictures, to watch on Hulu and Disney+. You can check out the trailer below:
