Yesterday Jan and I saw the imaginative recreation of Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama’s first date, Southside With You. We left the movie smiling. Bottom line: a lovely, if slight film. But, then what else should one expect from a movie about a first date.
As to what the pros think, when I googled “Southside With You” and “review” three brief quotes popped up. One by Manohla Dargis at the New York Times reads, “Sweet, slight, and thuddingly sincere.” Another by David Edelstein at Vulture goes, “The movie’s mix of romance and politics – both African-American and feminist politics – have a naïve kind of charm.” He continues, “The movie is charming even when it’s stilted, and it’s often stilted.” And, last from David Sims at the Atlantic, “Southside With You is a gentle, rose-tinted piece of political nostalgia – one that glances at the divisions in American society, but still casts a optimistic view toward whatever’s next.”
I’ve said any number of times, what I write as a viewer of movies should not be considered “criticism” in the technical, certainly not in the professional sense. I do not have the education, formal or informal that equips me for that noble profession or even an amateurish approximation. I write appreciations, and, okay, at least once since I’ve added this feature to my Monkey Mind blog, a warning. With this film that caution gets more complicated yet. I am a keen political observer, keen at least in the sense of “eager” if not as “sharp.” And my politics with only the slightest reservations pretty full on at the leftward end of our national spectrum. So, with a dash of honesty in advertising, those very much are the glasses through which I saw this movie.
Okay, actually one more slight confession. As I grew up the style of the Kennedy administration was celebrated as “Camelot.” As it turns out with heavy emphasis on “style.” Today, I consider the Obama administration and even more the Obama family as the real American Camelot. In the sense that they are the American dream manifesting in their family lives lived on pretty much full display at the White House for what is closing in on eight years, with grace and a style that is worthy of the word, and at the same time vastly more than just refined tastes. They visibly care for each other and their children. They have raised those kids right in front of us to have their heads screwed on right, with the help of their live in grandmother – that alone worth more than words can convey. And, of course, in the living out of their values in a vicious political world. When there is little hope to be found in this world, I look at them just as human beings and I find a glimmer of it.
All this said, this is a small movie. As Rotten Tomatoes tells us it “looks back on a fateful real-life date with strong performances and engaging dialogue, adding up to a romance that makes for a pretty good date movie in its own right.” Southside With You was written and directed by Richard Tanne. It stars Tika Sumpter as Michelle Robinson and Parker Sawyers as Barack Obama. The whole thing runs a mere eighty-four minutes.
A full ninety-three percent of Rotten Tomatoes ninety-two professionals gave the film a thumb’s up. However, a mere fifty-six percent of the slightly more than three thousand viewers who choose to record opinions gave it a positive nod. I’m not sure what to make of the disparity, although I fear it may reflect our polarized political atmosphere.
The film may be slight, but it is good. Actually I think it very good. The two principals, Tika Sumpter & Parker Sawyers capture the essence of their subjects and give us attractive, complex and compelling people, brilliant and driven and at a moment where they are making decisions that will mark the rest of their lives all while on a first date. Yes, the movie does drop into the didactic on occasion. But, it is the danger of a film that is mostly about two people getting to know each other, and where talking is the locus of action, and mostly it works. I’m grateful that writer/director Tanne doesn’t add any anticipation of what is to come. Of course we as viewers cannot help but fill that in. I find it all flows naturally out of the experience.
For Jan and me it was a wonderful near hour and a half. It left me feeling hopeful for this poor broken republic, and particularly for the dream at its heart.
Worth seeing.
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