What’s In vs. What’s Out: 2024 Food in Film Edition
Can we guess which fruit is about to grace our silver screens?
What’s In vs. What’s Out: 2024 Food in Film Edition
Food in movies will always be something audiences subliminally desire, and yet all popular culture operates in a fantastical network of ebbs and flows. As a food-in-film ~trend forecaster~, I took it upon myself to give you the 4-1-1 on what’s in and what’s out in 2024 when it comes to edible items and the magic of the movies. Let’s dig in…
2024 Food In Film: What’s “In”:
Drink sponsorship in Teen Movies
Think: A red solo cup party with a cooler full of Celsius and High Noon
Big Cooking + Kitchen Scenes
Food-in-film lovers like us may be aware the highly anticipated The Taste of Things (Dir. Tran Anh Hung), set to release in February, and its promise to deliver a 38-minute long opening scene of mouth-watering meal preparation and delights to all senses. Factor in the success of 2022 and 2023 hits like The Bear and The Menu, we should expect the art of cooking to come to a peak on the silver screen this year.
Nefariously Poisoned Food
Since the success of 2019’s Knives Out and its sequel The Glass Onion, almost everyone who works in the film industry has heard executives consistently begging for comparable mystery storylines. Since the COVID-19 pandemic slowed trend cycles a tad, I’m betting we have a few more years of mystery-forward dramedies to look forward to.
Be that as it may, food-tampering, specifically, still needs its time in the spotlight in this decade. So before the 2024 summer movies start rolling out, I recommend we all give Frank Capra’s comedy Arsenic and Old Lace a watch. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it by now, it’s a delightful comedy that involves murder, and is the film Capra made immediately prior to making It’s A Wonderful Life.
Chocolate via Kid + Family Movies
This trend is moving right in step with the overarching rise product placement in media and food brand collaborations with films! Rejoice!
Chocolate has never gone out of style, of course, but I think many of us feel chocolate’s cultural pull on children, versus non-chocolate candy, is somewhat cyclical. Per the National Confectioner’s Association, candy sales have been growing in recent years: In 2021, sales of chocolate grew by 9.2% versus non-chocolate candies grew by 14.5%. Anecdotally, 2022 and 2023 felt like big non-chocolate candy years. It feels like every time I’ve walked into a non-Amazon-owned grocery store in recent years, bags of sugary pink gummy loops and Pixar-adjacent lollipops have been on full display.
The Barbie movie collaborated with Pinkberry and Coldstone Creamery exclusive berry and cotton candy flavors, Baby Shark’s candy licensing deals are all the rage with toddlers, and Spongebob Krabby Patty Gummies are still for sale and thriving. And I cannot even open up the can of worms that is Candy Cane Lane right now… (The linked review over on
has it covered.)Now, in 2024, with the new Wonka movie hitting theaters and inflation hitting hard, I suspect consumers will be going back to basics and craving a classic chocolate bar with a fresh spin (a.k.a. a Viacom subsidiary licensed IP plastered on the wrapper.)
Vomit + Other Forms of Regurgitated Food
Unfortunately, I fear this 2023 trend, solidified by the brilliant Poor Things and Willem DaFoe’s burp bubbles, will continue. Incidentally, I also have a sneaking suspicion that anthropomorphism will be big in 2024, so the best we can hope for here may be regurgitation via an otherwise adorable baby bird feeding sequence.
p.s. I highly recommend reading this thought-provoking piece on anthropomorphism in cinema from a young whippersnapper at The Frida Cinema in California. It’s simple, but the meat and potatoes are worth your time.
Citrus Fruits
Mark my words, a major motion picture in 2024 will feature a pivotal scene with either a lemon or an orange. See “outs” for further elaboration…
2024 Food In Film: What’s “Out”:
Round Non-Citrus Fruits
Between Oppenheimer’s apples and Timothée Chalamet’s peaches, the use of sweet, juicy, fibrous sugar bombs has officially become 2024’s food in film overused trope to avoid. (Spare citrus fruits, as mentioned above.)
Big Dinner Table Scenes
Look, I love a dramatic, lengthy scene set around a dinner table as much as the next person, but I can palpably feel the mainstream drift away from these big supper bashes. Instead, I expect to see more solo dining character portraits, and duo dinner dates.
Food-Inspired Costume Design
Say goodbye to cutesy, dangling cherry earrings – at least for now. In the fashion world, the public adoration for girlhood bows in fashion is waning just as fast as it came in, and out, too, are “girly”, loud statement pieces in moviemaking costuming. Let’s just say Fran Lebowitz is on the moodboard.
Spare a few teen-targeted movies (perhaps Lisa Frankenstein?) I predict the films of 2024 will feature generally more reserved costuming. As
points out in their latest newsletter, Ms. Lebowitz is on the record for hating loud, food-adorned clothing.“If people don't want to listen to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your sweater?” she quips. Then, “If God meant for people to walk around in coasts that have pictures of butterscotch sundaes on them, then and/or why does He wear tattersall shirts?”
p.s. if anyone knows were I can cop a coat with a butterscotch sundae on it HMU.
p.p.s. I feel like Unlogical Poem should have a coat like this, so if anyone has any connections there, now would be the time to pull those strings IMO.
p.p.p.s. Fran Lebowitz would hate my style.
p.pp.p.s. Unlogical Poem does sell a corduroy circus blazer I’ve been dreaming out nightly for the past two years since I saw it, though, in case anyone was wondering.
Audience Participation Upcoming: 2024 Oscar Predictions Poll
As someone who has been a participant of many an award season prediction bet / votes, it recently occurred red to me that we here at Film Flavor can provide something that most prediction polls cannot: An option to vote for your favorite food moments that graced our screens this past year.
And so, I’m writing to let you know that a Film Flavor 2024 96th Oscar’s Predictions Poll (with Bonus Food-centric Nominations) will be headed your way later this month, after the official nominees are announced on January 23rd.
Already subscribed? Liking + commenting on this post in Substack, as well as sharing this post with others via the button below, supports me and this little ditty we’re dancing in more ways that I can express ❤️🩹
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week!
With Gratitude,
-
Thanks very much for the shout-out--I appreciate that. :-)