Long before Barack Obama stepped foot in the Oval Office and made history, the biggest dilemma that occupied the mind of the would-be President of the United States revolved around one Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter), and it’s that budding romance that anchors Richard Tanne’s intimate summer drama, Southside With You.
Written by Tanne himself, the biopic shuns convention by focusing solely on the relationship between Obama (Parker Sawyers) and his significant other, who would eventually go on to become his wife and First Lady. In fact, Southside With You tells the story of the pair’s fateful first date, and what may seem like a bright and breezy premise makes for a touching, focused and poignant drama in today’s first trailer.
Taking viewers back a full 25 years, Southside With You “recounts the eventful summer day in 1989 when a young law firm associate named Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) tried to woo lawyer Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) during a daylong date that took them from the Art Institute of Chicago to a screening of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing to the site of their first kiss outside of an ice cream parlor.”
Following a premiere at Sundance, Southside With You has been slated to open on August 26 when Vanessa Bell Callowa will also star opposite the Obamas. As for Parker Sawyers, he can next be seen alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Oliver Stone’s Oscar-tipped drama, Snowden.
