A Food Writer’s Picks and Pairings for SIFF 2023

Friday, May 19th • 6:00 pm @ AMC Pacific Place
Saturday, May 20th • 3:00 pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
Also streaming online

What do you do when your best friend kisses you? In this coming-of-age film made by and for Gen Z, Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa) finally comes out to Egghead (Louis Tomeo). They navigate their shifting relationship on a cross-country road trip that marks their last summer together before college. Director Sarah Kambe Holland wrote a rough draft of the script at 19, and a viral TikTok video helped crowdfund over $20k for production. 

Twinkie seems amused by the discomfort of her adoptive white parents when she defiantly claims her identity as “yellow on the outside, white on the inside.” I have a theory that Egghead gave himself a self-deprecating nickname in solidarity. I can appreciate that he never mentions why—because allyship doesn’t require announcement. 

Aside from racially-charged references to the namesake snack food, this film is on my list because of how often food is used as a plot device for exploring friendship. A few of my favorite moments: Egghead assembles a legendary “snacket” for sneaky movie snacks—complete with baby wipes for the Cheetos dust! The duo makes a pit stop at a Chinese restaurant, where they try Taro-flavored bubble tea for the first time. Twinkie stops at a gas station and buys snacks for a long-haul drive with their last six dollars: two 5-Hour Energy drinks, a pack of Orbit gum, and a two-pack of Twinkies. Honorable mentions go to the most epic dine-and-dash scheme I’ve ever seen.

Saturday, May 13th • 8:00 pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
Monday, May 15th • 12:30 pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
Also streaming online

Set in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, this psychological drama follows Robin (Grace Glowicki), a grader at a peach cannery who thinks she has found an invasive insect burrowed inside a piece of fruit. Sharing this discovery makes her a social pariah: her small agricultural town is still recovering from a prior, devastating infestation. 

I wondered if Montague was meant to be portrayed as a food desert. Robin’s tires eventually get slashed at the grocery store. I watched it back: there are only two moments where anyone eats during the film. Both take place between Robin and her younger sister, Laney (Alexandra Roberts). They are the only people to be shown eating peaches, and the scene where they buy soft-serve and deep-fried pickles out of a giant peach snack shack quietly reveals an unwanted pregnancy. 

The subtleties of this shot-on-16mm film are riveting. Through that rosy, monochrome sheen, I almost didn’t notice the silver kara worn by Jay (Paul Kular), or the Khanda hanging from his rearview mirror—a nod to Sikh farming communities across the PNW. Intimate, immersive camera angles from car back seats and behind doors ajar put you inside the story as it unravels.