The film follows a young, chain-smoking Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) and a deeply principled Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) as they traverse Chicago's South Side on their first "date." It may be difficult for viewers to believe that the real Barack and Michelle spent so much of their first date outlining their childhoods, their experiences with structural oppression, and their theories of change as Movie Barack and Movie Michelle did. But that stuff doesn't really matter anyway. Southside with You, while sweet and overly schmaltzy at times, powerfully reminds viewers that the story the Obamas gave us over the past eight years—an eight years that may look a paradise since Trump won—is one worth holding onto and retelling for future generations.

Read the full review by Sydney Brownstone