Movie review: Becoming by Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama’s Becoming is a Netflix Documentary that takes us behind the scenes of her book tour. Watching Becoming felt like having coffee with Michelle Obama. It was personal, fun, vulnerable and illuminating.
I immediately felt at home with the opening scene. Of course, I love Kirk Franklin’s “A God like You” but to learn that the 44th First Lady of the United States of America listens to the type of music I would listen to in transit made me feel like I could hang with her.
Her vulnerability in admitting that being the First Lady has been the greatest honor of her life while acknowledging the pressure that comes with being the constant center of attention was profound.
It made me realize that while some blessings may come with pain, the pain does not reduce the gravity of the blessing.
Though she was not seated across from me with a table separating us, I felt seen by her. Michelle Obama was attentive to and personal with the people she met on her book tour, as shown in the documentary, she asked questions that were relevant and important to the person she was speaking with. Questions about their story, their dreams, kids, amongst others. If I ever sat with her, I felt like she would listen to my story and acknowledge its uniqueness and power like she did for Elizabeth Cervantes and Shayla Allen, girls she met during smaller group sessions held as part of her book tour.
The documentary has wisdom for everyone: for married couples, she emphasized the importance of taking ownership of your happiness - her happiness was not dependent on Barack Obama making her happy; for parents, she shared how her parents always made her feel visible; for women considering marriage and kids, she shared openly about the sacrifices she made while raising her kids; to people who feel like they don’t belong, she said;
“I am coming down from the mountaintop to tell every young person that is poor and working-class, and has been told regardless of the color of your skin that you don’t belong: don’t listen to them, they don’t even know how they got at those seats”.
A profound moment was her response to a question about how she is adjusting to “normal life” after being FLOTUS. She advised us to see life as a journey of Becoming, to take the time to process our lives and figure out what it all means and to be comfortable creating new paths after life throws us curve balls.
I left our coffee session with the confidence to see my story as powerful, to own my heritage and find passion in my experiences. I hope you grab a cup and experience it for yourself.
If and when you watch Becoming, please share the key highlights and lessons you gained with us in the comment section.
This article was written by resident writer, Temilade Ojuade