Cheetos

The 2022 The Fabelmans served as a way for Steven Spielberg to tell a semi-autobiographical account (one that was critically well received) of how his love for movies came to be and how his early years of directing went, albeit with the primary characters’ names changed. By the end of this heartfelt and messy masterpiece though, audiences were treated to an almost beat-for-beat recreation of something the filmmaker experienced in real life, with Gabrielle LaBelle’s Sammy Fabelman meeting director John Ford. It turns out…

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…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeWeeks before the cameras started to roll on Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria’s first narrative feature as a director, an exposé by the LA Times claimed that its subject, Richard Montañez, had falsely taken credit for the invention of the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto. This was no spurious dispute – the spicy corn puff is the stuff of snack legend, a global phenomenon that’s spawned its own fashion and…

For the last decade, Richard Montañez has been telling the story of how he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The world has been eating it up.It goes like this: He was working as a janitor at Frito-Lay’s Rancho Cucamonga plant when he dreamed up a chile-covered Cheeto and believed in himself enough to call up the chief executive to pitch his spicy idea.Corporate backstabbers tried to sabotage Montañez for stepping out of line, but he out-hustled them, driven by a hunger to succeed. Flamin’ Hots became a runaway hit, and…

The future is uncertain, and on many days it can feel bleak. We’re barreling towards catastrophic climate change, for instance. Social media has become a catalyst for the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories and disinformation. The U.S. is deeply politically divided. And, of course, there’s still a rapidly evolving virus circulating and killing people worldwide. But amid it all, some are thinking ahead.TikTok user @sunday.nobody has done all he could to ensure that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, at least, survive well into the…

Megan Thee Stallion had plenty of reasons to sign with Roc Nation as her management, but there was one tasty snack that helped seal the deal.While speaking at the annual Cannes Lions Festival on Thursday, the 27-year-old dished on some of her business ventures, including her management contract with the iconic hip-hop entity. Megan recalled the day she was scheduled to meet with imprint executives and having no idea Jay-Z would join them, or that he’d come with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in hand.“I thought I was coming to meet…