'Southside with You' with Sunshine and D

Sunshine's thoughts:
My favorite kind of movies fall under the drama, love and romance genres! That is one of the main reasons why I wanted to see Southside With You. From all the previews, clips and commentary I read on Twitter it was a movie about Barack and Michelle’s very first date. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie! BUT the fact that this was a day long date I would have had a problem with. Michelle had only planned to go to a meeting with him for a couple of hours. It was very cute that he had the day planned out, but it is still kind of inconsiderate if you think about it. What if she had other plans?

Also, I don’t know about you, ladies, but the fact that he needed to stop and smoke for what appeared to be every two seconds would have been enough of a turn off for me. If we actually established something further from this first date I would have had to talk to him about that. I would not have minded the hole in his car. It is still drivable it would just make me question his home environment. Aren’t guys’ cars their pride and joy? So if your car is looking like that then what does your home look like? But I must say Barack was definitely a smooth talker throughout the whole entire movie. 

I give him props for continuing to pursue her after all the times she’s turned him down and tried to downplay their date. He definitely wooed her and made her see him for what he really was. He wasn’t just another black employee from the same firm. He was a man who loved and cared about his community and continued to try and better it even while being away at school and working at a law firm. Everyone loved him and he wanted Michelle to see him for more than what he appeared to be.

I also give him props for getting her ice cream even though he does not like ice cream AND even after she basically told him off because of the run-in they had with their boss at the movies. Which, I must say, pissed me off buttttt that’s a topic for another day.

Anyways, back to the point, I loved that Barack went out of his way to buy Michele ice cream because I know plenty of guys who would have left her on the corner to find a different ride home. He really does care! And the kissing scene was the best part of the movie for me! It was like everything finally came together. All his hard work paid off and he was soooo smooth with it too. This movie is a good reminder of how women should be treated whether it be the first date, thirteenth date or an anniversary. 

It would have been a better movie if it was a tale of their whole life rather than a first date. The movie was long, but lacked depth. I would have loved to see the trials and tribulations they had to go through to get where they are today.

Deion's Thoughts:
Man, just when I thought Barack Obama couldn’t have been any smoother, this movie comes around and proves me otherwise. If Barack had a son I can imagine him taking the family out to see the movie and during every moment where he did something smooth in the film he would elbow his son and say “That’s how you do it!” From witty compliments to reciting poetry, this man was debonair. Shout out to Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter for their phenomenal performances. In an interview, Tika Sumpter said they didn’t want to imitate the Obamas, but instead they really wanted to embody them and they did just that. Tika Sumpter had Michelle Obama’s voice down pat and there were many scenes where the lighting and camera angles had Sawyers looking exactly like Obama. Whether it was intentional or not it was spot on.

So back to Barack being smooth, this man was cooler than a polar bear’s toe nails. On the first date, he did all of the right things. He did everything except, EXCEPT… he didn’t open the car door for Michelle. This was a minor infraction but I couldn’t help but notice it. It’s not like he lost points for it anyway. I’m sure his excessive smoking and the hole in his car were bigger issues to get over.

It was great to see the Obamas as regular people and get to know who they were before they entered politics. It was crazy to even imagine that politics weren’t on their minds when they first met. There were so many fun facts throughout the movie that made me say “wow, they’re just like us.” For example, I didn’t know Barack Obama didn’t make his varsity basketball team during his junior year of high school. I also had no idea that Michelle’s brother, Craig, got drafted by the 76ers. Here’s another freebie, Michelle doesn’t like pie but loves chocolate ice cream. Barack hates ice cream after being overly exposed and indulgent of it while working at Baskin Robbins one summer. My favorite just like me moment came during a bar scene when they are briefly debating which Stevie Wonder album was better between Talking Book and Innervisions. They ended it by agreeing that Stevie is the best and they drank to it. Like I said, it wasn’t a major plot point, just a nice subtlety that made the Obamas relatable.

Richard Tanne did an amazing job of discreetly capturing the racial climate of America in the late 80s. Throughout the movie there were many subtle references to the clear divide between black and white America. An example of this can be found when Michelle describes going to work as leaving Planet Black and entering Planet White. The best indicator of the racial climate at the time was the inclusion of Do the Right Thing. This wasn’t done for the sake of proving something; the Obamas really did see that movie on their first date. You can just see the differences between the two worlds when the black people in the audience are cheering at the riot and looting of Sal’s pizzeria while Michelle and Barack’s white boss was confused and frustrated about the whole thing. It goes to show that America had a long way to go entering the 90s and it also shows how much progress we made in seeing an African American president.

With this in mind another thing Southside With You brought to light was the differences between Barack and Michelle. Barack’s last name alone makes him stand out from the average “smooth talking brother.” And the fact that he’s bi-racial and grew up in Hawaii made him otherworldly at the time. As Michelle stated, Barack’s parents were ahead of their time for having a mixed baby in 1961. Despite how different Barack was from the typical African American background that Michelle had, he was still connected to the black community. This is further evidenced in his revelation of a past relationship with a white woman during his days at Columbia and how it ended it shortly after visiting her family. Despite their relationship being a great one, seeing all of her family portraits reminded him that he was and always will be an outsider in her world. Without saying it, that moment revealed that although the black experience isn’t monolithic, it is still united on the basis of color, which is a sad and beautiful thing all together.

Michelle too had her fair share of insightful moments and personal struggles. The intersectionality of being a black woman is a big theme in the film. She explained early in the film about how being black makes her have to work harder to hush the murmurs of her employment being due to a racial quota. Then, adding the fact that she’s a woman brings her back down to zero. Unfortunately, this is an issue that still persists to this day and doesn’t get much attention. One line that stuck with me came from Michelle as she was advising Barack to forgive his father and let go of the resentment and judgment he passed on him.

“All fathers’ lives are incomplete, that’s why they have sons.”

If I ever meet the Obamas, I would like to ask Michelle what she meant by that. I would also like to ask for Barack’s take on it given that he doesn’t have any sons.

Overall, this movie was phenomenal from start to finish. It’s more than a romance—although if that’s all you take from it then you won’t be disappointed—it’s more so a film about two people entering each other’s lives and their desire to do more and make a difference. Regardless of your race, upbringing and political views, this is a movie everyone can relate to and should see.