She chides him for being late as he charges with a clearly smitten smile it’s a memorably novel meet-cute moment: “When POTUS met FLOTUS.” There’s a twinkle to the film from nearly the start as young Barack and Michelle meet on screen for the first time. Nearly instantly, with a brisk and charming rhythm, Tanne cleverly uses a nice shorthand to introduce his two iconic characters as well as establish a time and a place. One summer day, they agreed to attend a Southside church event together where a meeting concerning a stymied community center was being held. While Stone attempted to raise questions on Bush’s legacy and otherwise stir the pot for liberals and conservatives alike with W., Southside With You – written and directed by Richard Tanne (in his feature debut) – is an otherwise affectionate and fairly apolitical chronicle. Chicago, 1989 – a young Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) is a summer associate at the law firm Sidley Austin and Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) is his adviser at the firm. The film opens mere months before he departs the White House and while two movies hardly constitute a trend – curiously, another Obama bio entitled Barry is also coming soon – if this short-standing tradition holds up, we just might have a cinematic Molotov cocktail in four or eight years time based on our current political climate (either way, enterprising hairstylists may want to start fashioning blonde wigs). Now arrives Southside With You, a new feature film that takes a look back at the early days of Barack Obama, specifically his first date with future wife Michelle. Strangely toned and not particularly good – the film resembled an extended SNL sketch without the jokes – the movie was nonetheless a peculiar and fascinating novelty as it explored the life and presidency of a then sitting Commander-in-Chief, something we hadn’t really seen before save from the obscure 1963 John F. Eight years ago, Oliver Stone’s George W.
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