'Southside With You' Trailer: Tag Along on the Obamas' First Date
This year’s Sundance Film Festival hit Southside With You has all the hallmarks of a great date movie — that is, if you’re interested in one of the most important first dates in modern American history. Southside dares to drop in on the early romance of a young Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson as they wander Chicago during one hot summer day in 1989.
Related: Sundance Report: ‘Southside With You’ Reimagines the Obamas’ Delightful First Date
As the first trailer above reveals, the charming, modest drama from first time writer-director Richard Tanne has more in common with the walk-’n’-talk romance Before Sunrise than with any political biopic. We meet Michelle (Tika Sumpter), a successful young lawyer who’s getting ready to go to a community meeting with her firm’s new summer associate. The outing is firmly not a date, as she keeps telling her skeptical parents. (“Barack O’what?” her father asks when he hears her potential suitor’s name.) This version of Barack (Parker Sawyers) still smokes, drives a rusting Datsun, and has a thing for Janet Jackson. He’s also doing all that he can to persuade the reluctant Miss Robinson to spend the day with him. Will he succeed? Spoiler alert: yes. But it’s still a campaign worth watching. Southside With You hits theaters in August.
