Review: Why Becoming is Worth a Watch

by Maya Davis

image: Alex Nemo Hanseon on Unsplash

Michelle Obama, someone who garners the most visible class and poise, has given the world an exclusive glimpse into her world, both politically and personally. Two years after leaving the White House, the former first lady went on tour to release her memoir, Becoming. As Obama ventured on a book tour for her worldwide bestselling book, she gained her own recognition to the public outside of her husband, former President Barack Obama.

She has now come out with her own Netflix Documentary, also named Becoming, produced by Obamas’ own production company, Higher Ground. The documentary showcases a seemingly rare and up-close look at her life. It is compelling but carefully narrated from her perspective, while showing footage from both on and off stage during her world book tour. She describes what it is like growing up on Chicago’s Southside and shares intimate family moments.

The film opens with her and her crew’s in her hometown of Chicago, the first stop in her 34-city book tour. She is delicately dressed in full white garb, preparing to speak in a fully packed arena with well-known TV host, Oprah Winfrey. The clips in the film begin to tell first-hand the story of Obama’s heavy experience while being the first lady.

She shared that she had held back tears when physically leaving the White House for the last time, and joked that the media would probably misconstrue it. She went on to explain her sobbing once she got on the plane, “I think it was just the release of eight years trying to do everything perfectly.”

The film has a powerful set of motivational messages on the critical morality of education, while creating and dominating your narrative. Especially as a young black woman, Obama points out.

It is tough to believe that someone who has been in the public sphere for almost a decade, can finally sit back and reflect on the journey and all that has come with it. Yet, Obama does it with fortifying and insightful conversations. While sharing her story and self-reflection, we see her notable allure and intriguing humour on display.

She lightly touches on personal and delicate topics, such as her experience with postnatal depression and marriage counselling. She would rarely touch on such issues before, but here she gives a raw and vulnerable perspective on her life behind and in front of the media. However, it has its selective memoir moments, as she is still trying to maintain an image.

As the film continues to share Obama’s life with her family, it gives us more background on her relationship with her dad - who passed away from multiple sclerosis - and visiting her family home in Chicago. She tells us the story of how she met her husband, jokingly describing their co-workers as meddling when it came to the making of their union.

When she spoke on the matter of raising her children, she made it clear that she didn’t want her daughters, Malia and Sasha, to feel spoiled and entitled growing up in the White House. One of the ways she accomplished this was to minimise the White House staff’s work when it came to the children insisting that they could clean up after themselves instead of looking for someone to do it. At one point in the film, we were able to see a pleasant moment captured when Barack Obama surprised his wife with an appearance during one of her book tour stops.

As a lot of America has come to know and love Obama, it’s hard to imagine that at one point in her life someone didn’t have high hopes for her. She recalls her high school principal telling her that she wasn’t “Princeton material”. Well, she was wrong.

As Obama famously said during her husband’s presidential term, “when they go low, we go high.” She kept that same ideology throughout this film with her eloquence and class.