Movie Review: Flamin' Hot

© Searchlight Pictures

‘Flamin’ Hot’ is a quirky enough “based on a true story” tale of a snack's possible origins.
by Jeremy Fogelman

Cast: Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert, Emilio Rivera, Tony Shalhoub, Matt Walsh, Bobby Soto, Jimmy Gonzales, Brice Gonzalez, Comedy, Drama, Biopic
Rating: ★★★

There’s an interesting idea of spicy food, the only food we like that seems to also hurt you -- and the biological and psychological reasons why we like it. Some people can handle very spicy foods and request more ghost pepper powder, while some can barely handle looking at a pepper shaker. Personally I’m more in the former category, but in general I haven’t really thought about the origins of spicy snacks, it always just felt like something that’s gotten more popular over time -- but it’s interesting to delve into the possible history of one item in particular.

Flamin’ Hot comes from director Eva Longoria (in her feature directorial debut, as she’s only directed TV or documentary films before) and written by Lewis Colick and Linda Yvette Chávez, based on the memoir A Boy, a Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive by Richard Montañez. The company Frito-Lay has since insisted that he didn’t actually invent the concept, but instead had successfully follow-up ideas -- this movie doesn’t bother with the controversy other than one line near the very end of the film, which could be ambiguously taken anyway.

Instead the film follows Richard (Jesse Garcia) as the omnipresent and quirky narrator telling the story of his life and successes. The film sets the scene at the start with a lot of Chicano slang and untranslated Spanish, but a lot of engaging energy and often pretty amusing little fantasy or flashback scenes presented in intentional caricature.

Richard tells the story about his rough childhood in Guasti, California and his difficulty fitting in at school in the 1960s surrounded by racist white kids. He meets Judy (Annie Gonzalez) in school and immediately bonds with her -- they start a little hustle selling burritos to kids who have never experienced Mexican food, but due to the bigotry at the time, they have trouble staying on the legal side of things.

Instead they both get involved in criminal activity, at least until Judy is pregnant and Richard wants to play it straight for his family. For a while, he struggles to find anyone willing to hire a former criminal, but through luck and persistence, manages to get a janitorial position at the local Frito-Lay factory. Of course, Richard fantasizes about shaking things up like the then CEO Roger Enrico (played by Tony Shalhoub, who’s obviously always good) but a decade creeps by in a difficult economy with little forward momentum.

© Searchlight Pictures

The actual inspirational moments of Richard figuring out the “spicy food” idea (even if it’s not based on reality) is a fun sequence of scenes, and we get to see him and his family and friends work hard to achieve their version of the “American dream”. It’s not really something interrogated that heavily, of course, because this is really a story about someone persisting through bigotry and succeeding due to great ideas and being given a chance by potential allies.

The movie is a pretty fun time, paced in a very typical “setback and success” format, but it’s peppy enough that it rarely drags, even if some beats get a bit repetitive. It’s a very well-known formula, but the leads of Jesse Garcia and Annie Gonzalez (supported by a bunch of fun side characters) are consistently engaging and easy to root for, even if their story feels a bit unbelievable (and perhaps it is).

I suppose I hadn’t realized Eva Longoria has been directing for a while, with a lot of TV episodes I’ve certainly watched. I think this comedic, lightly fantastic style works well for her, and the energy feels like a slightly elongated TV sitcom episode anyway. It’s a fun kind of “based on a true story” tale and it certainly makes me interested to see what she might direct next.

Flamin' Hot, now streaming on Hulu and Disney+, has a run time of 2 hours 9 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some strong language and brief drug material.