Most movies based on true stories fudge the facts so much that you can’t believe it. Thew only accurate thing about Good Morning Vietnam was that Air Force service member Adrian Cronauer was on the radio in Saigon during Vietnam. Everything else was made up by Robin Williams and director Barry Levinson. Despite what we saw in Rudy, the head coach of Notre Dame was all for allowing the young man to suit up for the last game and he was on the field for more than one play. Daniel Ruettiger actually contacted (and even bugged) anyone he could connected to Hollywood or filmmaking for years to get his story told.
The only thing that really happened in Cocaine Bear was that a black bear consumed cocaine that had been thrown out of a plane over the lower Appalachian Mountains. Wyatt Earp’s legend has been heavily questioned in the last few decades. Billy the Kid probably was just a low man on the totem pole of gunslingers connected to the Lincoln County War. But sometimes, there’s a story that comes around that is so absurd that it has to be real, right?
Not exactly.
Flamin’ Hot tells the story of Richard Montanez (Jesse Garcia), an executive for Frito-Lay, who started out as a janitor, who with help from his loyal wife, Judy (Annie Gonzalez), created the recipe for the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. It’s a nice story of how things sometimes start out from humble beginnings to go on to be major success. Coca-Cola only sold 25 bottles its first year. Stephen King literally nearly threw his career away by becoming frustrated with the early pages of Carrie before his wife, Tabitha, found it in the trash, read it and said it could work. The Wright Brothers had a crazy idea that people could fly with the use of machines.
So, the idea of a janitor who no one thought much of and didn’t ever graduate from high school, could piddle around in the kitchen with his wife and kids and they came up with the recipe to a best-selling snack is a great story. But Frito-Lay has disputed the fact that Richard created it. They report it was actually created at the company’s headquarters in 1989 in Plano, Texas. The concept of the movie directed by Eva Longoria, in her directorial debut, is the concept of the little man standing up against the mindless suits who keep telling people what they should like instead of what they do like.
But Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub) liked it so much he was willing to take a chance on the new product despite all the suits, who are whites and mostly men, telling him it won’t work. The story doesn’t hide the racism that Richard and Judy faced as Mexican-Americans in a world in which they were expected to be gangbangers instead of entrepreneurs. Even though he sold burritos as a child, white people and the police questioned why he had money. At the Frito-Lay plant, he is subjected to the same prejudice mostly by plant manager Lonny Mason (Matt Walsh). And Walsh is one of these actors whose done this role so many times, it’s getting very annoying.
And that’s kinda the problem. Nothing is really new to this story. It seems like it’s been done before and better. Movies like The Founder, Joy and the recent Air and Tetris all seem to present a stranger than fiction style of stories that seem so absurd they must be true. In this case, the story doesn’t appear to be true. So, along with the annoyingly bad The Pursuit of Happyness, it’s another one of those “Pick Yourself By the Bootstraps” stories that leaves out much of the truth.
While Richard deals with the subtle and not-so-subtle racism at the factory plant, he works off the clock with Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert), an engineering maintenance leader, who is impressed by his insterest and stamina. But that’s the problem. The movie wants to tell us that the only thing missing is a little “Can Do” attitude and giving a little extra. But for many people in the workplace, that’s not poissible. A lot of people can’t work off the clock and some plants even have rules against people when they’re not on the clock even people in certain areas.
At the same time, the movie shows how the Reagan Administration’s “Trickle Down” Reaganomics affected low-paying people. The movie wants to have it both ways. It wants to be a condemnation of the conservative policies that were put in place in the late 1970s following the recession and throughout the 1980s that hurt people like Richard. But it always wants to say that Richard’s determination paid off in the end – for him at least. To many people like Richard worked extra and were denied promotions or were just laid off.
Granted there are some great scenes between Richard and Judy and his family. But at the same time, Richard is criticized by his father, Vacho (Emilio Rivera), who also was abusive physically, that it seems like a totally different movie. The scenes of Richard, Judy and their kids working with the recipe does have a lively feel to it. And the movie does show a matter of fact look at Mexican-American life and cultures with the lighting of candles.
But the inaccuracies are hard to overlook. Richard actually worked his way up from a janitor to a machine operator in 1977. So, when the movie tries to portray him as a lowley janitor up until he was finally promoted to an executive is kind of a cop-out. Also, Enrico didn’t start at Frito-Lay untl 1991 not in the 1980s as the movie presents.
The movie had some success when it started streaming on Hulu and Langoria does show some promise as a director. Garcia and Gonzalez keep the movie watchable and Shalhoub and Haysbert are a delight to see. But just like spicy food, this movie doesn’t quite sit well with me.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 