Barry

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!"

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.

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.

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.