The man who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos gets his time in the sun but Eva Longoria’s by-the-numbers drama leaves questions

A film telling the story of a Mexican American janitor who went onto create a $1bn snack brand fits into Hollywood’s current cultural and creative moment rather perfectly. It’s been a time both of exploring the dramatic origins of everyday products and services (from Nike’s Air Jordans to BlackBerry to Tetris to Uber) and of finding more ways to tell diverse stories outside of a prohibitively limited lens, a lens that’s been particularly limited for Latino characters.

Despite Latino audiences over-indexing at cinemas in the US (in 2021, they had the highest per capita attendance, averaging 1.7 visits a year compared to 1.3 for white audiences), there remains a disappointing dearth of big screen representation (a report last year showed that just 5.2% of leads in film were Latino or Hispanic). Ahead of this summer’s landmark DC adventure Blue Beetle, centering a rare Latino superhero, Eva Longoria has found an unlikely success story to propel her to the title of film-maker, having cut her teeth on television. Her small-screen tutelage is hard to shake in this earnest and at times efficiently entertaining, yet also rather plodding rags-to-riches tale that aside from the odd flourish, feels very much like a TV movie.

Continue reading…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

UK Athletics chief Jo Coates promises to end ‘jobs for the boys’ culture

Coates vows to help women coaches succeed at highest level ‘These networks…

The numbers are troubling for Boris Johnson, among Tory MPs and beyond

Analysis: 211-148 suggests about two-thirds of backbenchers are against him, and even…

Judge drops four of 11 sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein

The move had appeared likely as prosecutors opted to leave Jane Doe…

Fugitive convicted of attempted murder in US caught in Mexico after 32 years

Greg Lawson disappeared in 1991 during his trial for murder of Seth…