Southside with You

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Southside with You is a 2016 American biographical romantic drama film written and directed by Richard Tanne, in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter as a young Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson, respectively, and focuses on the couple's first date on an evening in 1989.

Principal photography began in July 2015 in Chicago. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released on August 26, 2016, by Miramax and Roadside Attractions.

Video Southside with You

Plot

Law student Barack Obama, while working as a summer associate at a Chicago law firm in 1989, tries to win the heart of Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer and his supervisor at the firm, filling time before a community meeting. They visit an Ernie Barnes exhibit at a local art center, attend a community organizing meeting where Obama gives a speech, view a screening of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, and have their first kiss outside an ice cream parlor in what winds up being their first date.

In real life the former U.S. President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama kiss has been marked with a historical plaque at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor at the Dorchester and East 53rd Street intersection in Chicago.

Maps Southside with You

Cast

• Parker Sawyers as Barack Obama
• Tika Sumpter as Michelle Robinson
• Vanessa Bell Calloway as Marian Robinson
• Phillip Edward Van Lear as Fraser C. Robinson
• Deanna Reed-Foster as Bernadette
• Jerod Haynes as Tommy
• Gabrielle Lott-Rogers as Rafiqa
• Tom McElorynas Avery Goodman
• Taylar Fondren as Janice
• Donn Carl Harper as Curtis
• Preston Tate, Jr. as Kyle

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Production

The original idea was developed by Richard Tanne in 2007, after which he started writing the script. On December 5, 2014, Deadline reported that there would be a romance film titled Southside With You, based on the first date of American President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama, set in Chicago, where the couple met in 1989 and married in 1992. Tika Sumpter would play Michelle, while no one had yet been cast in Barack's role. Tanne would make his directing debut on the film, based on his own script, and producing alongside Tika Sumpter.

On April 10, 2015, IM Global came on board to produce the film with producer Robert Teitel. In April 2015, Sumpter talked with Vulture about her preparations to play Michelle, and stated that she was "nervous" because she was about to play "Michelle Obama, who is everything every woman wants to be," and also said that she was reading some poetry and books to get know more about Michelle, so she could portray the role better. On May 7, 2015, Parker Sawyers was cast as the young Barack Obama. Producers on the film were Tanne and Sumpter, along with Teitel, through IM Global.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on July 13, 2015 on location in Chicago, Illinois; following that, several websites released photos from the set. Filming wrapped on July 31, 2015. Locations included downtown, the South Side, and the West Side. Filming was also done on Amstutz Expressway in Waukegan.

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Release

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2016. Shortly after, Miramax and Roadside Attractions acquired theatrical distribution rights to the film. On April 28, 2016, Miramax released the first official trailer for the film. The film was distributed worldwide with theatrical releases in France, Germany, Singapore, UK, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, and parts of the Middle East.

Box office

Southside with You was released in North America on August 26, 2016, and was initially projected to gross around $2 million from 813 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up grossing $2.9 million, a per-theater average of $3,762. The film went on to gross a total of $6.5 million against its $1.5 million budget.

Critical response

Southside with You received mostly positive reviews, with praise going to Tanne's direction and screenplay, as well as to the performances of Sumpter and Sawyers. Upon its premiere at Sundance, it immediately garnered positive buzz with Essence writing that "critics gave it two very enthusiastic thumbs up, calling it a classic romance story." On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92%, based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10 from All Critics and an approval rating of 98%, based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10 from Top Critics. The site's consensus states, "Southside with You looks back on a 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." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Justin Chang of Variety wrote that the film "stands as something unique, even audacious in American independent movies: a fact-based presidential "prequel" that seeks to present two iconic world figures as convincing and relatable romantic leads. And on that particular score, Tanne's movie -- toplined by the very well-cast Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers -- is pretty much an unqualified success."

Critic Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "the date movie of the year," and described it as "gorgeously romantic." Richard Brody of The New Yorker touted Tanne's first film as "an opening act of superb audacity," and described it as "a fully realized, intricately imagined, warmhearted, sharp-witted, and perceptive drama, one that sticks close to its protagonists while resonating quietly but grandly with the sweep of a historical epic." Odie Henderson of RogerEbert.com gave the film four-out-of-four stars, stating that it is "at once a love song to the city of Chicago and its denizens, an unmistakably Black romance and a gentle, universal comedy," adding that "it is unapologetic about all three of these elements, and interweaves them in such a subtle fashion that they become more pronounced only upon later reflection." Stephanie Zacharek of Time described it as a "vivd and imaginative portrayal," and noted of the two lead performances that "Sawyers captures both the easy, loping rhythms of our future 44th President's speech and the long-stride elegance of his carriage. Sumpter is equally terrific," adding that "she manifests perfectly the future First Lady's under-the-radar determination, always tempered by empathy." The film was included on many year-end lists including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Roger Ebert.com, The Huffington Post, Crave, Medium and Ain't It Cool News.

Accolades

Home media

Southside with You became available on Digital HD on November 29, 2016 and Blu-Ray and DVD on December 13, 2016 from Lionsgate and Miramax. The film became available to stream on Netflix on April 26, 2017.

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References

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External links

• Official website
• Southside with You on IMDb
• Southside with You at Box Office Mojo
• Southside with You at AllMovie

Source of the article : Wikipedia