Synopsis
A young Barack Obama forges his identity while dealing with race, divergent cultures and ordinary life as a New York City college student.
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Cast
- Devon TerrellBarack Hussein Obama
- Anya Taylor-JoyCharlotte Baughman
- Jason MitchellPJ
- Ellar ColtraneWill
- Jenna ElfmanKathy Baughman
- Linus RoacheBill Baughman
- Avi NashSaleem
- John Benjamin HickeyProfessor Gray
- Ashley JuddAnn Dunham
- Sawyer PierceThad
Recommendations
- 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Barry emerges as an involving and credible portrait of a smart young man with a good deal of growing and learning yet to do. - 80
Variety
You could almost watch Barry even if you’d never heard of Barack Obama: The movie is simply interested in what it looks like when a guy who’s got this much going for him has a piece missing. - 80
The Guardian
The movie is rich on its own as a character piece about the difficulties of being bi-racial, especially at the very specific location of Columbia University. - 80
Los Angeles Times
In some ways, Barry the film takes its personality from Barry himself. Always pleasant and companionable but a little pro forma in its early going, it gains in texture and interest as Obama's life and his reaction to it get more complex. - 75
The Playlist
There’s something widely relatable about the way Barry tries to find somewhere to fit in, and preferably in a place where he can be himself and not somebody else’s symbol. - 75
The Film Stage
Whereas the aforementioned Southside With You was a calm, romantic watch, this is a serious and refined drama which has the feel of a political firecracker. - 75
The A.V. Club
Barry doesn’t so much offer glimmers of the man Obama would become as lay experiential groundwork for his later life choices. - 70
TheWrap
It hasn’t always been easy trying to figure out what’s going through the mind of the 44th president of the United States, but Barry is a satisfyingly curious, honest attempt to make his inner struggle a beautiful part of this groundbreaking statesman’s biography.
