SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU Review

Any movie that decides to play Janet Jackson over its opening credits is off to a good start. Especially when it's "Miss You Much," coupled with eighties inspired pink text flashing across the screen. From the opening scene Southside With You sets the tone of a late summer day on the streets of Chicago at the tail end of that decade we've all suddenly become enamored with nostalgia for. It is 1989 and Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) is getting set to accompany the summer associate she is advising at the law firm she works for to a town meeting to address local community issues. As the lone African-American woman working at this law firm Robinson has had to work doubly hard in order to gain the respect she desires and she's not about to let the first charismatic, smooth-talking black guy convince her to undo all that hard work by going on a date with him. Or is she? It just so happens this young, summer associate is a hotshot from Harvard named Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers). And so, yes, Southside With You is the story of the first date between the now President and First Lady of these United States of America via the lens of something akin to director Richard Linklater's Before trilogy. It's a clichéd comparison at this point, but an apt one as the majority of Southside With You is filled by our two main characters walking and talking. If you haven't seen Linklater's trilogy that chronicles a couple meeting and spending a single night together that was little more than that in 1995 it is the epitome of characters walking and talking. Chronicling that magic of how perfect strangers can connect so intimately over a short period of time and analyzing that indescribable feeling that creates a strong, trusting bond between two people-a bond that will inevitably turn to love-Linklater's films provide a nice template for how to both simply and intricately weave together the innocence of falling for someone and the complex emotions that will inevitably come with circumstance. Linklater has returned to his characters in ten year intervals with sequels in 2004 and 2013, but with Southside With You writer/director Richard Tanne takes notes largely from that initial meeting treating his characters not as the future Mr. and Mrs. President, but simply as two people in that awkward phase between true adolescence and true adulthood who are just trying to figure themselves and the world they live in out.

First Trailer for SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU

Premiering to largely positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year Southside with You is writer/director Richard Tanne's chronicling of the summer 1989 afternoon where the future President of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady on an epic first date across Chicago's South Side. No matter your stance on Obama's presidency it is difficult to deny the charm in this first trailer for the film that shows what our current President was like on the precipice of his thirtieth birthday. There are of course hints as to what lies ahead for the couple, but in knowing that eventually the reluctant Michelle (played here by Tika Sumpter) gives into the charms of Obama (Parker Sawyers) the film doesn't seem to be concentrated on the will they/won't they aspect that most romantic comedies do, but rather the facets of the individuals that make them a good match for one another. In many of the reviews out of Sundance the film drew comparisons to Richard Linklater's romantic Before trilogy that uses the events of a single day to define multiple years of the central couples life. If Tanne's film has any of the insight and honesty present in Linklater's series it will certainly be something to be on the lookout for, not to mention the couple at the center of the film being one of intense public interest. Either way, this trailer has me sold on the film as it certainly has a very particular tone and feel to it that serves to separate it from all of the other summer offerings at the multiplex this year. With a great, natural aesthetic (it was shot on location in Chicago) and the two leads seeming to channel their real life characters without doing silly imitations while also having great chemistry I look forward to getting to know the Obama's a little better. Southside with You also stars Vanessa Bell Calloway, Phillip Edward Van Lear, Deborah Geffner, Taylar Fondren, Preston Tate Jr., Jerod Haynes, Fred Nance Jr., Donald Paul, Tom McElroy, and opens on August 26th, 2016.