User reviews

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.

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.

The movie is an interesting look at the President's early life. We've come to expect the current President to be cool and collected and this movie looks at the anxieties and insecurities that he would have faced at that time.

I would recommend this movie to a person interested in human behaviour. The film is, at its heart, the study of a young mixed-raced man trying to find his place in early 1980s New York but it also interesting as Obama's personal story, particularly his slightly disapproving view of his mother and his conflicted feelings about his absent father.

The lead actor Terrell does a great and convincing job as the young Obama. However, the film lacks something special and leaves you with the lingering feeling that there's another installment to be watched.

Well-acted and well-made drama about a young man who's struggling with his identity, and that man happens to be Barack Obama but the subject is of course something that many can relate to.

So it's NOT a 'rags to riches' kind of tale about how Barack overcame the odds and managed to become president of the USA, but more a low-key drama about a man who hasn't really figured out who he is or who he's supposed to be.

I have a feeling that the rating is so low with almost 20% of the current ratings being 1 stars, that these are simply people who don't like Barack in general. Wouldn't be surprised if most of them haven't even seen the film either.

Not saying that it's an amazingly mind-blowing film that everyone should love or anything but it is suspicious.

Anyways, I did see it and I did like it and was surprised to find out that it's Devon Terrel's debut movie, he makes a convincing young Barack.

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."

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!"

I am appalled by the disgraceful politicization of Obama's time at Columbia expressed in the negative reviews here when Snopes offers a quick debunking of such ignorant slander. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/columbia.asp

On to the film. I enjoyed it quite a bit as it was a successful exploration of our 44th president's deep search for identify in an alienating and often violent NYC of the early eighties. The parallel relationships with his white girlfriend and fellow classmate from the Grant Houses in Harlem symbolically left him somewhere in the middle of a conflicted cultural and racial identity. The grit and vibrant culture showed through and seemed accurate to the period of great cultural and especially musical innovation, all against a back drop of graffiti and the litter-strewn vacant lots of Upper Manhattan.

The only character I would have appreciated more development from was his Pakistani roommate who seemed too much a drunk and drug-addled caricature.

Overall a very enjoyable film.

I really was looking forward to watching this movie, and had the release date earmarked to see it. But after spending my early morning watching it, I was overall disappointed and realized that I could have waited.

So I'll start off with the good parts. Big props to Devvon Terrell on getting Barack's speech, mannerisms and attitude to a tee. He really could be a dead ringer for the younger version of the President; so casting did a fabulous job there. For her few moments in the film, Ashley Judd did a great job as Barack's mother. I enjoyed seeing a peek into their relationship and I wish it was fleshed out more. It was also interesting to see the film show Barack's fish out of water moments. Being bi-racial in 1980s New York, for sure he experienced a lot of them.

But the rest of the film fell flat. It just wasn't compelling at all. The trailers made it seem like you would be presented with key experiences from Barack's formative years; the things that help make him into the man we know today. The truth is you got very little of that. It was more of just a conflicted college kid trying to navigate the relationships with his on-campus peers and his (White) girlfriend and family. The script kept trying to bring in Barack's desire to have a relationship with his father, but it just felt random and out of place each time.

Overall this film wasn't a horrible waste of time. But it was far from being remarkable. I have yet to see "Southside With You", but I feel as if this was an ambitious effort that just fell short of the mark.

This movie is not entirely what I was expecting; I expected a chronicle of the young life of Obama and his years at Columbia and Harvard. Instead, I saw a powerful story of race and a young man trying to find himself in a big city where he doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. The movie largely focuses on this concept of Obama not fitting in and seeming alone in the world; there are probably right around five minutes total of simply scenes of Barry smoking cigarettes by himself, pondering life. This is a tale of angst and identity. It shows a much more human side to our president that we don't get to see very often. At the very least, it will give you a more human understanding of the president and maybe you will be able to see the drive and optimism that he still has for our country. He is critical of the system and believes the people must make change happen, two ideas still similar to his beliefs, though due to the way Washington works, was simply unable to fully follow through on.

Overall, although it is a little slow at parts, it sends a powerful message about race and what it's like to not feel like you fit in anywhere.

It does bring up important topics of course such as racism, and finding your "place" while society looks at you as sort of an outsider. But if you only base your main carachter (and actually pretty much all of the other carachters are just there to make a certain reamark about these topics) - your film is going to end up terrbly repetative, Barry is probably one of the best examples for that.

If you are an angry liberal or an angry conservative you will probably like this. if you are a moderate you will find it off putting and full of lies. pretty good though as far as locations and acting.

"Barry" is a Biography - Drama movie in which we watch the former U.S. President Barack Obama on his early life when he arrived at New York to study Law. He faces some difficulties during that time but also creates some friendships and relationships.

I have to admit that I was expecting it very different and boring but it was far better than this. It had a simple but interesting plot that was never boring, with a nice direction which was made by Vikram Gandhi. The interpretation of Devon Terrell who played as Barry (Barack Obama), it was very good and he succeeded on making us understand the character of Barry but also of the later president of U.S. Barack Obama. Another interpretation that has to be mentioned was Anya Taylor-Joy who played as Charlotte and she was also very good. To sum up, I have to say that "Barry" is a nice movie about Barack Obama and I recommend it but I have also to admit that I was expecting to show also some other aspects of Barack Obama, something that did not happen.

Barry simply put is the early years of Barack Obama in New York and his struggles trying to fit himself among the people there. Simply put, it his the identity crises caused because of his mixed ethnicity.

Its a beautiful story on paper but in the hands of director Vikram Gandhi, this is a story lost in translation.

The movie starts of well as the young Barack moves into New York with a serious identity crisis. It is shown that he never as such connected with his Dad in Kenya, his years in Manila have changed him and he questions the things around him. He cannot mix with either the blacks or the whites. He has a nice sweet white girlfriend but due to the crisis inside him, he starts to move away from here. And he has loving mother beautifully played by Ashley Judd who tells him that all will be fine one day.

However, the writing is inconsistent and we are never ever able to understand or feel the chaos inside Obama. At some places the story is drifting and I was wondering what is happening. However, the ending saves the film from being a total washout.

Devon Terrell is a good actor and its too early for me to judge him through this film since the writing and directing are not upto the mark. He does put up a nice performance and I hope to see more of him soon.

The rest of the cast puts a commendable performance and the movie is worth a visit on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I wonder who felt compelled to change the the facts: 1- Ann Dunham was 18 when she had Barak. Why have her say she was 19? 2- Obama Sr got a masters at Harvard. Why have Barry say it was a PhD?

3- no comment how he got from Occidental to Columbia?

4- in the eighties I was pulled over in my own town because my car was covered in salt from driving on the highway in the winter. As I'm not black I couldn't claim racism was his reason for pulling me over. But I did appreciate the police looking into any suspicious vehicles.

Nothing in this movie explains 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, how Barack met Michelle, or any of the other missing pieces of information from Barak's past.

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.

Although I consider Obama the best President in my lifetime, I consider this film the worst film made about a President who lived during my lifetime. I had to write this review because when I saw the low IMDb rating I figured it was due to typical site trollers that never even saw the film. But the truth is that this is not a very good film.

The acting is all solid, but the script is trite and boring. I don't think it revealed a bit about Obama that most people did not already know.

When tackling the issues of race that have to be tackled in a biography of a young Obama, it would be very easy to come off as clichéd. And unfortunately that is the way it comes off. If you feel like watching a film about recent Presidents there are several films about Nixon and JFK and Stone's Bush bio that are certainly worth watching. "Secret Honor" is a gem you should seek out in particular. But you can skip this one.

Slowest, most useless movie i have ever seen. It was nothing as you expect. Disgusting time waste

It had an ok storyline with a clear message, but I wanted certain scenes to be more impactful. The build-up was good and had a lot of potential actually. The optimistic newcomer left the viewer with the impression of having changed and more self-conscious look on the world. Though, as he admits himself, is unsure about who he is, he at least became more aware. That is why - especially for the bar scene near the end - a longer and more close-up shot monologue would have been righteous. Devon Terrell was convincing on screen, but the story could have pushed his acting range much further. Lastly, the atmosphere sometimes appeared to be that of an average TV series, which was too bad.

This movie barely scratched the surface of the President well-admired and liked around the world. Be prepared for a rambling narrative with no point to it at all. Don't expect any historical reference because you will get none. The main actor nailed the look for the Barrack we all know but his hard work was short changed by the writing.

You can say the main point of the movie was to portray a frustrated black man in the 80s. But what more frustrating is his unwillingness to share or to let others in, including the audience.

Skip or watch? I would skip.

Once a biographical movie is out, other directors rarely take on the challenge to release a second one, even if it focuses on a different part of the person's life. This director blew it for all of us who were inspired by Barack Obama and wanted to see him rise, struggle but become the man and president we had the chance to witness. This movie gave us a boring, fade, and uninteresting perspective on him. I just lost 2 hours of my life and I still know nothing about a great man I still admire to this day. I guess I'll have to read the book then.