Flamin’ Hot is an entertaining biopic about Richard Montañez, a janitor at the Frito Lay chip factory who rose to become a marketing executive after (he claims) he came up with the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. While Monteñez may be exaggerating his role in the invention of Flamin’ Hot, the movie is based on his real life experience as detailed in his book, “Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive.” Director Eva Longoria was drawn to telling Montañez’s story for her first feature film debut. She wanted to tell a heroic, positive story about a Mexican American who worked hard to achieve the American dream, with the support of his family and community. Cinematographer Federico Cantini had previously worked with Eva on Unplugging, a small indie movie, where the two of them were the only Spanish speakers on set. Eva admired his energy, passion and collaboration with the female director. When it came time for her to choose her DP for Flamin’ Hot, Federico was Eva’s top choice.
The original script Eva received for Flamin’ Hot was a very straightforward, factual biography film, without any elements of humor. Eva knew she needed to capture the charismatic character and voice of Richard Monteñez, so she watched videos of his TED talks and other public appearances. She worked with writer Linda Yvette Chávez to rework the script during COVID. It was important to keep the film high energy and constantly push the narrative forward. “Ron Howard’s one of my mentors,” says Eva, “and his motto is something should be happening every nine to ten pages. So you should have nine to ten page sequences. It’s a page turner, you know, it’s constantly moving.” She also admires the narrative style of director Adam McKay’s films (The Big Short, Winning Time) and the way he fluidly uses montages and voiceovers to tell stories based on fact. Flamin’ Hot has 11 montages, with tons of information crammed into each shot. The movie also never strays from Montañez’s point of view. Even in scenes where he isn’t there, Eva used the comedic device of Moñtenez narrating what might have happened in certain scenes, such as at Frito Lay executive board meetings.
Once the script was complete, Federico read it and found it extremely relatable. As an immigrant himself, Flamin’ Hot was an opportunity to make his mark, much as Monteñez had. Fortunately, he and Eva had lots of pre-production prep time. They are both big planners, which was important- the shooting schedule was extremely tight, with just 30 days to shoot Flamin’ Hot on 108 sets, during COVID. The film was primarily shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the entire Frito Lay factory was a set. Today’s Frito Lay factories are extremely modern and automated, so they knew it would not have the right look for the 80s and early 1990s. With the set, they had lots of control over where they could shoot and what it would look like with depth and color. The set pieces such as the tumbler and conveyor belt were all on wheels, so they could easily be moved around. Coming from TV, Eva felt confident that they could accomplish all they wanted in the time that they had, and they left all their creative energy on the screen.
Federico and Eva wanted to break up Monteñez’s story into three different decades with three distinct looks to separate them. Federico used Crystal Express lenses for Montañez’s childhood, Canon K-35s for his gang banger days, and then for the 80s and 90s, Panavision Panaspeeds, but modified to look like Super Speeds from the 80s. He also used a probe lens to emphasize the size of the factory and for drama in the tasting scenes.
Eva enjoyed directing a biopic, and she looks forward to telling more stories from her community. She likes directing projects she’s also acting in, and she wants to continue to direct and produce films with purpose. Federico had a great experience working on Flamin’ Hot, and he and Eva plan to work together again soon.
You can watch Flamin’ Hot on Hulu or on Disney+.
Find Eva Longoria: Instagram @evalongoria
Find Federico Cantini: http://www.federicocantini.com/
Instagram @federicocantini
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