Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Southside with You Blu-ray Movie Review

Date movie.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 8, 2016

Everyone probably has their own definition of what constitutes a date movie. My wife, for example, prefers rom-coms, and attempts to rope me into viewing them with her any chance she can get. Some guys I know, especially when they were younger and more prone to be on the prowl, used to swear by taking girls to the scariest movies available, because the women could (if the strategy worked, that is) get frightened and want a little physical contact to feel safe. But Southside With You takes the concept of “date movie” to a whole different level, since it’s a movie about a date. While it’s not really a rom-com by any stretch, Southside With You will probably be more favored by those with my wife’s tastes than for those who go for a bit more extreme entertainment for outings with significant others. The film charts the first date between Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) and Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter, who also co-produced), and plays out more or less in real time over the course of a Chicago evening where the nascent couple enjoys a series of activities before their fateful first kiss. There’s nothing overly revelatory about this film, but it’s really striking in a way, offering a treatment of relatively recent historical events in the life of a couple still ensconced in the White House as this Blu-ray comes to market, something that in and of itself is at least a little unusual.

Aside from the simple oddity of having a film built around the first date of our current First Couple, there’s also the narrative issue Southside With You can’t avoid, at least in terms of subtext: we all know how the story turns out. That leaves the film’s actual “plot” built out of vignettes that often include some smart dialogue by the film’s writer (and director), Richard Tanne. Southside With You puts an emphasis on family right up front before moving on to the focal couple, with both Barack and Michelle interacting with grandparents (in Barack’s case) or parents (in Michelle’s case) as they each prepare for their day together, one which Michelle repeatedly insists to her parents is not a date, since she’s in a work relationship as his supervisor at a law firm where he’s interning. Her kind of standoffishness and his eagerness to forge a romantic relationship provide about the only thing approaching “conflict” in what is otherwise an almost philosophical dialectic at times.

The fact that Michelle is the work superior and that she seemingly has more of an upper middle class lifestyle (at least as evidenced by Barack’s car, which sports a rusted through floorboard) also provides some interesting subtext, thought the film doesn’t really dwell on such issues. Instead we get to know too sometimes cautious but intellectually acute characters who are obviously checking each other out, if perhaps for different initial reasons. Southside With You offers little character tidbits like Barack’s incessant smoking habit, but it also tends to reveal character in sometimes unusual and unexpected ways, as when Barack riffs on (of all things) the old television sitcom Good Times when he takes Michelle to an art gallery installation featuring African American art.

In what amounts to a mini-walking tour of Chicago, the two have several interchanges before Barack attends a community organizing event, which is perhaps when Michelle’s interest in him starts to grow beyond a professional curiosity. A number of interesting interchanges fill the film, including supposedly self-revelatory information Barack imparts about various aspects of his upbringing. For a film built out of sometimes subtle reactions (perhaps appropriately, given the oft repeated nickname “no drama Obama”), Southside With You builds to a rather sweet conclusion, with (spoiler alert) ice cream and a first kiss which seems to augur a long and happy relationship.

The film’s two central performances are extremely winning, though Sawyers doesn’t really try to imitate Obama’s distinctive speaking style (he does rather resemble Obama at times, especially in some profile shots). Sumpter perhaps has the more challenging assignment here, for even given Michelle Obama’s obvious fame and omnipresence over the past eight or so years, people probably feel they don’t really “know” her as well as they do the President. With that in mind, Sumpter delivers a nicely rounded portrait of a smart and extremely self-possessed young woman who isn’t about to be bamboozled by any mere sweet talk, but who over the course of the date comes to realize something about Barack Obama has touched her very deeply.

Southside with You Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Southside With You is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again the IMDb offers no data on this shoot, but I found a Panavision site which credits the Arri Alexa as the camera utilized. This is a kind of interesting presentation, since some scenes have been tinkered with to give what I assume is supposed to be a digital recreation of grain, but which makes the imagery appear textured at times, almost as if it had been printed on cardstock. At other times, the imagery is completely free of this technique, offering nice sharpness and excellent detail levels. That said, there is still a diffused and at times gauzy appearance to several scenes which I assume was intentional, especially since this is often achieved by aiming the camera at effulgent light sources. That said, this tendency on a couple of occasions almost approaches looking out of focus. Occasional compression problems enter the fray in some darker moments (see screenshot 15).

Southside with You Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Southside With You's 1989 timeframe offers the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to strut its stuff in a variety of era source cues (including a song by producer John Legend). The track also is nicely open and spacious feeling in some of the outdoor moments, notably the park scene, and an outdoor stroll with ice cream that caps the film. Otherwise, the film is often built out of up close and personal dialogue between Barack and Michelle. Fidelity is fine on this problem free track.

Southside with You Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director/Writer Richard Tanne


• Original Artwork and Animations

  African Dance (1080p; 4:12)

  Art (1080p; 3:22)

  Dance (1080p; 1:11)

  Pie (1080p; 2:11)

  Shoes (1080p; 00:42)

  Skyline (1080p; 1:50)

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:32)

Southside with You Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Date movie or movie about a date, Southside With You is a surprisingly smart and effective romance, even if one improbably removes the fact that this is the (future) Obamas we're watching get to know each other. While I wish Sawyers had attempted a more convincing recreation of Obama's unforgettable patois, his take on Obama's cool but (in this case) calculating approach toward Michelle is quite winning. Sumpter delivers a very believable mixture of smarts and softness. Technical merits are generally very good to excellent, and Southside With You comes Recommended.