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''Barry'' is a 2016 American
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by Vikram Gandhi about
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
's life at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
in 1981. It stars
Devon Terrell Devon Terrell (born 23 October 1992) is an Australian actor, best known for playing a young Barack Obama in the 2016 biographical film ''Barry'' and Arthur in the Netflix original series '' Cursed.'' Early life and education Terrell was born i ...
, Anya Taylor-Joy,
Jason Mitchell Jason Mitchell (born January 5, 1987) is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller ''Contraband'' (2012), and the neo-noir '' Broken City'' (2013). He is best known for portraying ...
,
Ashley Judd Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonn ...
, Jenna Elfman, Ellar Coltrane, Avi Nash, and
Linus Roache Linus William Roache (born 1 February 1964) is a British actor. He is known for playing Executive ADA Michael Cutter in the NBC dramas ''Law & Order'' (2008–2010) and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2011–2012). More recently, Roa ...
. It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the
2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...
. The film was released on
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
on December 16, 2016.


Plot

In 1981, a 20-year-old Barack Obama, commonly known as Barry, arrives in New York City to attend
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
as a transfer student from
Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...
. Unable to contact his expected roommate, Will, Barry spends the night in the streets. The next day, Barry succeeds in contacting Saleem, a man he met at a party a few months back, who welcomes him in his apartment. Later, Barry meets his roommate Will and they both begin to live in their off-campus apartment on 109th street. As they are walking to class, Barry meets his neighbors when one of them asks for a cigarette. In class, Barry is engaged as a student and participates in classroom debates about philosophy and American society. While in New York, he behaves as a man apart from everyone, not sure of what he has to do to feel accepted. During his political science class, Barry meets Charlotte, a nice girl who seems to have an interest for debates. When he is not in class, Barry is playing basketball. While playing basketball, Barry soon gets nicknamed "The Invisible Man" by PJ, a graduate student at Columbia who grew up in the Grants Houses in Harlem. Later that night, Will and Barry both attend a frat party at Columbia where they see Charlotte again. Charlotte and Barry leave the party and go to a club downtown where they form a closer connection and begin to date. The next day, Charlotte and Barry watch a political debate on TV. While Barry is inattentive about politics and declares his love really lies in art, Charlotte tells him it's his "civic duty" to care about politics and their nation. As their love interest grows, Barry continues to wonder about his place in society, New York, and the condition of other black people in the city. The next day Charlotte and Barry go on a date in Central Park, and later that day after playing basketball within Columbia, Barry grabs lunch with PJ, who tells him he's majoring in finance and hopes to work at the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street. Around Thanksgiving, at a bar with Barry and Saleem, Charlotte asks Barry to meet her parents. Barry refuses and Charlotte then asks him to meet them later on at her sister's wedding. Finally, Barry accepts. In Harlem, he experiences the contrast of black life in New York City, from speaking with friends and buying the book '' The Souls of Black Folk'' by
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
to witnessing a vulgar confrontation between a white woman and a group of Black Hebrew Israelites. Later in the park, he attempts to write a long, overdue letter to his father in Kenya but struggles to find the words. After going back to Saleem's apartment, Charlotte and Barry are surprised to find Barry's mother, Ann Dunham, there. Charlotte asks a lot of questions of Ann about Barry's father and childhood as she is frustrated that Barry kept so much of his private life to himself. That night, Barry and his mom see a movie and walk around Central Park where he discloses to her that he is unsure about his place in New York and where he feels he should belong. Ann tries her best to reassure him, but the answers leave him unsatisfied. The next day, Barry is invited to a private club and is welcomed by Charlotte's parents Kathy and Bill and enjoys a nice dinner with them. Barry explains his early life to Charlotte's parents – his mixed race parents, their backgrounds, and his living situation in Hawaii, Indonesia and California, but Charlotte feels closed-off as Barry rarely discloses anything personal to her. While walking home Barry and Charlotte have an aggressive and potentially violent confrontation with a friend of his neighbor's, who resents his presence in the neighborhood and views Barry as an elitist. The following morning, Barry and Charlotte are walking in Harlem when Barry begins to feel uncomfortable as people are surprised to see him with a white woman. At lunch this anxious feeling continues as Barry explains to Charlotte that everybody is looking at him. They have an argument which ends with Charlotte saying to Barry that she loves him. Barry, surprised, only responds "thank you", then leaves to go play basketball. The following day, Barry is invited by PJ and the people in his basketball group to attend a party in Harlem. At the party, Barry learns about New York's housing projects and the treatment reserved to the lower classes. Barry also meets an attractive woman named Denise and is then punched in the face by Denise's boyfriend, who thought that Barry was attempting to seduce her. As Barry leaves the party drunk, he returns to campus only to be racially profiled by security guard Eddie and asked to show his ID to confirm he's a student. Barry begins to get into an angry argument with Eddie, but Thad, a white classmate from his political science class who is openly holding a beer can, intervenes. Frustrated by Thad's personality and his lack of acknowledgement of the double standards around him, Barry calls Thad an asshole and then goes to Charlotte's apartment where he attempts to hook-up with her. Charlotte refuses when she sees the wound on his face and tries to comfort him. While sitting on her bed looking at pictures she took of him, Barry gets in a fight with Charlotte and questions their relationship until Charlotte goes to sleep and leaves him alone. A few days later on the day of Charlotte's sister's wedding, Barry receives a phone call. He learns that his father has died in a car accident. Shocked, Barry doesn't talk to Charlotte about it while they are on their way to her sister's wedding and becomes very closed off when Charlotte tries to understand what Barry is keeping to himself. At the wedding, Charlotte's mother introduces Barry to Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs, a mixed race couple in their late 50s who were involved as civil rights activists in the '60s. Barry confides in them about his inner turmoil and the confusion he has about his identity. The couple reassures him that, above all else, he is American and he is not obligated to choose a social standing. They tell him that he should take inspiration from the ones who came before him and to carry the baton of hope as far as he can. Finally, Barry receives advice that begins to comfort him and he starts to find peace within himself. Later at the wedding, while they're dancing, it is assumed Barry breaks up with Charlotte as he simply leaves her on the dance floor; he then goes for a walk outside and reads the letter he was going to send to his father as he was finally trying to contact him. A few days later, Barry is playing basketball where he meets a young boy who looks like him, and together they play HORSE. The boy asks him where he is from, a question Barry has always struggled to answer. Much more at ease with himself, Barry answers the question by saying, "I'm from a lot of places, but I live here now."


Cast

*
Devon Terrell Devon Terrell (born 23 October 1992) is an Australian actor, best known for playing a young Barack Obama in the 2016 biographical film ''Barry'' and Arthur in the Netflix original series '' Cursed.'' Early life and education Terrell was born i ...
as Barack "Barry" Obama * Anya Taylor-Joy as Charlotte Baughman. Charlotte is a
composite character In a work of media adapted from a real or fictional narrative, a composite character is a character based on more than one individual from the story. Use in film *Several characters in the movie '' 21''. *The character Henry Hurt in the docudra ...
based on Obama's several girlfriends while in college. *
Jason Mitchell Jason Mitchell (born January 5, 1987) is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller ''Contraband'' (2012), and the neo-noir '' Broken City'' (2013). He is best known for portraying ...
as PJ * Ellar Coltrane as Will *
Ashley Judd Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonn ...
as
Ann Dunham Stanley Ann Dunham (November 29, 1942 – November 7, 1995) was an American anthropologist who specialized in the economic anthropology and rural development of Indonesia. She is the mother of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the U ...
* Jenna Elfman as Kathy Baughman * Avi Nash as Saleem * John Benjamin Hickey as Professor Gray * Tommy Nelson as Buzz *
Linus Roache Linus William Roache (born 1 February 1964) is a British actor. He is known for playing Executive ADA Michael Cutter in the NBC dramas ''Law & Order'' (2008–2010) and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2011–2012). More recently, Roa ...
as Bill Baughman * Danny Hoch as Eddie * Sawyer Pierce as Thad * Robert G. McKay as James Boggs * Marion Kodama Yue as Grace Lee Boggs


Production

In March 2016, it was announced Devon Terrell and Anya Taylor-Joy had been cast in the film, with Vikram Gandhi directing and producing the film from a screenplay by Adam Mansbach, with Teddy Schwarzman and Ben Stillman producing under their Black Bear Pictures banner, while Dana O'Keefe will also serve as a producer through her Cinetic Media banner. That same month,
Jason Mitchell Jason Mitchell (born January 5, 1987) is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller ''Contraband'' (2012), and the neo-noir '' Broken City'' (2013). He is best known for portraying ...
and Ellar Coltrane joined the cast of the film. In May 2016, it was announced that Famke Janssen had joined the cast.


Release

The film had its world premiere at the
2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...
on September 10, 2016. Shortly after,
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
acquired global distribution rights to the film. The film was released on December 16, 2016.


Critical reception

''Barry'' received positive reviews from film critics, and holds an 80% approval rating on review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 6.91/10. The critics' consensus states: "''Barry'' opens a speculative window into a future president's formative college years, offering a flawed yet compelling glimpse of American history in the making." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds a rating of 72 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


See also

*''
Southside with You ''Southside with You'' is a 2016 American biographical romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Tanne, in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter as a young Barack Obama (the futur ...
'', a romantic drama film about Obama's first date with Michelle Robinson, also released in 2016.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barry 2016 films 2016 drama films American drama films Black Bear Pictures films English-language Netflix original films Hood films Films about presidents of the United States Films about Barack Obama Films set in 1981 Films set in Columbia University 2010s English-language films 2010s American films