SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU

US, 2016, 84 minutes, Colour.
Ticka Sumpter, Parker Sawyers.
Directed by Richard Tanne.

A rather romantic title and the south side is that of the city of Chicago back in the summer of 1989. For those expecting something of a date movie, and some are promoting this film as such, it is a brief encounter between two pleasant characters, articulate characters. And some have been reminded of Richard Linklater’s romantic encounters, with a great deal of talking between the two characters, in his Before… Trilogy.

When we hear that the names of the characters are Michelle and Barack, there is no mistaking who they are. This is an opportunity to get to know the couple, the visualising of this outing which meant a great deal to them (and which commentators say is accurate enough about what happened, even to Barack buying Michelle a chocolate ice cream at the end of the film).

Ticka Sumpter and Parker Sawyers have put a great deal of effort into their characterising Michelle and Barack, Sawyers having a lot of Barack’s manner, look, into nations (and his heavy smoking at that period).

The action of the film takes place from the early afternoon until the evening, giving the couple quite an opportunity to talk, learn about each other’s history and family, talk about their work, their perspectives on social issues. Michelle insists to her mother and father and, frequently, to Barack that their outing is not a date, that he had invited her as a colleague at work to go to a meeting in a church about local social issues. By the end, especially with the ice cream, and a kiss, it has definitely been a date.

The first part of their outing is to an art gallery to see paintings by Edgar Barnes, quite arresting paintings of African-American? subjects, vivid colours, distorted forms, but illuminating a variety of situations and characters. This gives the couple an opportunity to talk about race issues, about Michelle’s straightforward family with a strong work ethic, about Barack’s white mother and her living in Hawaii and Indonesia, his Kenyan father and his father’s failures at study and work and death in a car accident. Many audiences know this background but it is interesting to hear the couple describe it.

Then the film moves to a more preachy and rhetorical situation, Barack invited to speak in the church to a group that is disappointed in social progress but he is able to turn their moods into enthusiastic support, reminding them that “no� can be turned into “on�. And so, we hear Barack social concerns – although Michelle does tell him that he sounds a bit professorial.

They also decide to go to a movie and see Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, the stirring 1989 drama of race relationships in New York City, showing a finale with racial anger and a riot. The couple actually meet their boss and his wife, white, who have come to see the film, the very few white characters in the entire film.

The film leaves it to the audience and their experience of the Obamas, not giving any further information about them and their careers. The final credits give an opportunity for the filmmakers to show us in longer close-up some of the Edgar Barnes paintings. For audiences who want something more challenging and controversial, they will have to wait until Oliver Stone decides to make a film about the Obama years!

1. The focus on Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama? An opportunity to appreciate them as persons, personalities, the relationship between the two?

2. The Chicago setting, the two homes, the streets, the art exhibition, the parks, the meeting in the church, the bar for drinks, the cinema and Doing The Right Thing, the conversation outside the cinema? The musical score – and the songs of 1989?

3. The 1989 setting, costumes and decor, atmosphere?

4. The film taking for granted audience knowledge of Michelle and Barack Obama? Not giving any further information about them and their careers at the end?

5. The actors, the resemblance to the Obamas, look, manner, speech patterns…?

6. The device of having the action take place over one afternoon in summer, 1989? A film of dating, a film of edge between the two, yet the attraction, the background of the workplace, legal education, social concerns? The conversation in the Art Gallery and afterwards, Michelle giving her family background, strong father and mother, her meanly strict grandfather and the effect on her father, the work ethic, praise of her brother? The contrast with Barack Obama, the memories of his mother, yet her absence in Indonesia, her marrying his father, the Kenyan background, his failing in his enterprises, studies, career, alcohol and the accident? Barack and his resentment towards his father, having to overcome it?

7. Race issues in the United States in the late 1980s? The presence of black men and women in professional careers? Prejudices? Social injustice?

8. The paintings by Edgar Barnes, their subjects, style, race issues? And the close-ups of particular paintings during the final credits?

9. Barack Obama and his social concern, his background, memories of schooling in Hawaii, in Indonesia, the touch of bullying, smoking marijuana during studies? His presence in the church, at the meeting, inviting Michelle? His being invited to speak, the down attitudes of the congregation, their interjections? His taking a more positive stand, saying “on� instead of “no�? His ability to stir up audience response, admiration? Michelle saying that his tone was a touch professorial?

10. The argument about whether the outing was a date not? The dispute about pie and ice cream? Barack and his persistence? His buying the ice cream at the end, the kiss?

11. Going to see Do the Right Thing, Spike Lees film and its ethos, the scene shown, black anger and riot? The conversation with the boss and his wife, Barack’s interpretation of the film, yet emphasising black anger to Michelle?

12. Audience reaction to the romance and the date? Some seeing it as too slight? Audience response to the serious implications? A touch of preaching?

13. The release of the film at the end of Barack Obama his eight years – and the impending Trump presidency?