Barry

This was the first movie that popped up tonight when I got on Netflix; I didn't hesitate to start it up. I personally don't understand all of the mediocre reviews. This movie shows a part of our president's past, and it shows that he is a human being just like us. Barack Obama went through all of the troubles that we go through in everyday life; love, heartache, trying to find himself, ridicule, fights, etc. This movie shows all of those things, and it shows us another side of this great man. This movie mainly takes place in New York City when Barack was attending Harvard. It shows what his college life was like, and man did he have a hard time. This movie shows you what it was like back in that time period. No, this is not the Barack Obama that we know and love (some people hate) yet, but it shows who he was before he found his calling in life. If you like inspiring movies that keep your attention, you should definitely give this one a watch. It will definitely give you more insight into how Barack Obama became the man he is today.

To counter the only other "review" which is, in fact, a political complaint about the Obama administration and implies that the author had not actually watched the film at all, I am writing this.

This is an interesting look at the life of "Barry", who isn't a politician and has no interest in politics at all. It looks at conflict, race, trying to fit into two worlds and not feeling like you belong in either... It's about learning who you are in a world that isn't sure where it thinks you belong. It was a wonderfully interesting peek into a time that helped to shape the man who would go on to be the leader of the free world.

A very good watch if you can manage to set your political affiliations aside for long enough to actually watch it.

In my latest review on HereLiesZay.com, I write:

"We're not fortunate enough to be flies on the walls of all the people in life we are enamored by. We don't get to see all the little moments in time that contribute to the most current versions of the human beings we adore and admire. And the beauty of it all, ironically, is that having access to the sum of all these moments (the person themselves) is how we're able to appreciate each moment individually. It's their context in relation to every other moment that enables us to enjoy the basket of personality that is weaved in and out of each varying nugget of experience.

Unfortunately, Barry simply did not succeed in providing us that context."

This film had important themes about being biracial in America, now or in the 1980's, but having Barack "Barry" Obama was detrimental (for me, at least).

The director said in an interview that the idea was to "accurately tell the story of a mixed-race kid in New York in 1981 that would one day become the 44th President of the United States," yet the latter part of that idea is non-existent in the film. It's just an accurate story about a mixed-race kid in New York in 1981 and that's it. I have no idea why Barack Obama is the main character of this film other than that he happens to be biracial. Any other detail specific to Barry is irrelevant to the story. You could have made this about a fictional biracial person named Darryl and it would have been exactly the same movie.

I found this confounding, because "Barry" IS the main character. And it was marketed as being about a young Barack Obama, which comes with certain expectations of seeing something that relates to the Obama we know - elements you would find in any other biopic - that are nowhere to be found. At best, you could make the argument that these experiences shaped the way he sees race in America, but there's nothing in the film to suggest that it did, which is even more confounding.

Had the main character been someone else, the theme of finding out where you belong would have made this a good film - competent acting, good dialogue and secondary characters. Everything was there, but setting the expectation of an Obama biopic and not delivering on that promise just left me disappointed.

If you're interested in seeing the film purely for that theme, you'll probably enjoy it.

If you're looking to learn about Barack Obama's college years, you'll be disappointed.

Filmmaker: "I wanna make a movie about Barack Obama, but I only wanna cover the most boring aspect of his life: his slightly frustrating college years! And don't worry, I'll make sure it's aimless, bland and lacking in perspective so people can leave the movie completely unenlightened and unchallenged." Netflix: "Perfect! We'll take anything!"