Flamin' Hot
Searchlight Pictures, 2023
Director/Writer:
Eva Longoria / Lewis Colick, Linda Yvette Chávez, Richard Montañez, Judy Montañez
Reading Time:
7 minutes
📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock
Barley:
Movies and TV shows with a lot of dialog
White:
Movies and TV shows that make you laugh, or involve urgency, like chase scenes or other physical activity
Reba Chaisson
2024-10-03
I am not sure if you remember the song by the late Minnie Riperton called “The Edge of a Dream,” but it kept ringing through my head as I watched this film about a man who, indeed, had only a dream. Based on a true story, Flamin’ Hot is about Richard “Richie” Montañez, a down-on-his-luck married father of two in the mid-1970s. After applying for dozens of jobs, Richie, played by Jesse Garcia (Snowfall, Narcos: Mexico), finally lands one as a janitor at a Frito Lay factory in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Upbeat and social, everybody likes Richie, even his supervisor, Lonny, played by Matt Walsh (The Hangover, Veep). However, Lonny dismisses Richie’s aspirations for doing more meaningful work at the factory and even his ideas for customizing the company’s products to appeal to the Hispanic segment of consumers. This is not because Lonny believes Richie’s idea of a spicy (Flamin’ Hot) recipe for its Doritos and chips is preposterous, but because the idea’s source stems from someone with no occupational prestige, marketing credentials, nor level of authority in the company. So, Richie goes home each night dismayed because he doesn’t see himself as having value nor advancing beyond his current role.
Early on in his tenure at Frito Lay, Richie meets Clarence, played by Dennis Haysbert (24, Major League), an engineer at the factory and the only African American of his stature. Although Clarence is recognized as being the best engineer at the plant, he has hit a glass ceiling. He too has not been promoted to a “white shirt” manager despite his years of service and high level of skill and expertise. Eager to learn from him and believing he can “fix anything,” Richie, against the advice of his friends to stay in his own lane, asks Clarence to teach him what he knows. Initially skeptical, Clarence buys into Richie’s initiative and infectious enthusiasm and takes him on as his new protégé. One of his first lessons to Richie is to listen carefully rather than speak, adding that he can tell which machine is off simply by the directional hum of the room.
Flamin’ Hot is an upbeat comedy with a lot of laughs, but as with most comedies it carries a lot of truths. For instance, director Eva Longoria pulls no punches in presenting the blatant hierarchy and segregation that is most evident in the Frito Lay plant’s cafeteria. While Richie comically introduces the sections of the cafeteria by jobs and rank, the occupations line up, not so coincidentally, by race and ethnicity. Sitting together is a group of Hispanics, responsible for the most unsanitary and physical jobs designated by the baby blue uniforms they are assigned to wear. Except for Clarence, the engineers are White and don blue coats, while their supervisors, all White men, are set apart by their white shirts and hard hats. What they all have in common, though, is their frustration with feeling stuck in their jobs at the plant and not advancing to the corporate office in administrative roles.
Flamin’ Hot is a story about how difficult, or rather unlikely, it is to get where you want to go alone. While Richie is the main character, it is just as much about others who support him in his journey as it is about him. This is particularly the case with his wife Judy, played by Annie Gonzalez. When Richie and Judy were kids, for instance, they were teased and ostracized by their White classmates for being among the few Mexican students in their elementary school. As a result, the two grew closer and ended up sharing a strong deep love and supportive bond, ironically forged by the disdain of their classmates and the negative treatment of police.
At one point in the film, a 10-year-old Richie is handcuffed and arrested for attempting to purchase candy with his own money because the police officer suspects he stole it. It reminds me of a scene from the 1998 hostage movie, The Negotiator, when Rudy (Paul Giamatti) said with frustration while handcuffed to a filing cabinet, “Once you familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage, you prepare your own limbs to wear them.” Being handcuffed doesn’t just influence how others think of you; it influences how you think of yourself. The act of handcuffing someone, whether the person is culpable or not, criminalizes them and has consequences for who they are and what they can become. In Flamin’ Hot, Richie hints at this understanding as well when he says, “Once they treat you like a criminal, you act like one.” Indeed, his challenges in landing a job or even believing he can do so can be tied to his experiences with the authorities as a child.
Over time, Judy grows even closer to Richie, and her support of him persists throughout their marriage. In a classic example, Richie struggles to complete the education portion of a job application, so she immediately sits down with him and offers to help. While he degrades himself, Judy says, “Stop! Can you do the job?” Richie replies, “I guess.” She stiffens her demeanor and asks the question again, and he changes his reply, “Yes, I can do the job.” Judy says, “Well alright then. You have a high school diploma” as she fills in the section of the application. This funny, matter-of-fact moment typifies Richie and Judy’s ‘we’ll deal with it’ relationship. Judy’s constant and unwavering support continues throughout the couple’s numerous and lengthy periods of financial instability.
Richie’s outlook changes when he inadvertently sees a video of the company’s CEO, Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub) compelling employees to “think like a CEO.” With an idea in his head that he expects will catalyze the Hispanic market segment, he finally gets up the nerve to call Enrico to pitch his idea, but he first needs to get past his secretary, Patti (Lori Martinez-Cunningham). Executive secretaries are typically gatekeepers, put in place in large part to grant or deny access to people, such as Enrico, in privileged positions who hold a great deal of power. Getting past Patti is the equivalent of getting your best shot. According to the film, Richie talks his way in, takes his best swing, and ultimately his boss bites.
Richard Montañez has been much maligned in the media with intimations that he didn’t create Frito Lay’s Flamin’ Hot recipe. As I said in my review of the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black, it is difficult to know what is true, what is embellishment, and what is patently false when it comes to biopics. These nuances, though, do not change the essence of this story about sitting on the edge of a dream and leaning into it until it blends with reality.
Whether entirely factual or not, Eva Longoria deserves kudos for going behind the camera and bringing to the screen a story for people at the bottom of the social hierarchy. It is both an important and entertaining film that pushes the possibility of dreams as something realizable with vision and the support of people who take just a little time to care. For Richie in Flamin’ Hot, these include his wife Judy, his mentor Clarence, and someone whom he doesn’t know, Patti, who grants him access for his pitch to the CEO. Hmmm. I’m thinking about the equivalents in my life. Who would be the equivalents in yours?