SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU

OUT 30 September / CERT 12A / 84 mins director Richard Tanne cast Tika Sumpter, Parker Sawyers, Vanessa Bell Calloway

In A PIECE of cute lefty fan-fiction, Richard Tanne’s two-hander imagines what may have occurred on the first date between Barack and michelle Obama (warmly played by Sawyers and Sumpter). Feeling similar to Before

Sunrise, it has the same thrum of two people doing nothing in particular but fall in love. The difference is that here the conversation is not peering inwards but looking out to the whole world and a brighter future. If at times the dialogue sounds written rather than naturally spoken and some of the exposition is inelegantly shoved in, it offers moments of insight into the world that pulled the pair towards government. not that that’s its main focus. Instead, it’s a sweet romance first with injections of politics along the way.