Barry Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Anya Taylor-Joy and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it turned out to be a decent watch, to be honest, it wasn’t much more than that though. Basically, the main idea was to show that Barack Obama at such a young age was already so much deeper and thoughtful than his peers but, to be honest, I never really bought it. Indeed, in my opinion, it was leaning too heavily on the mystic mythology around the former US president and to keep giving us some shots of Barry lost in his thoughts was definitely not enough. I’m not saying that the idea didn’t have some potential though. Indeed, it was quite interesting to see that, even though Obama was full of swagger and confidence during his presidency, in his younger years, the guy was actually really struggling with his identity and his fairly complex background. However, during one of the (very few) really strong scenes, it was pointed out by another completely random character that, basically, all Americans have a complex background but it would take many more years until Obama managed to grasp this concept and accept who he actually was. Furthermore, I’m not sure if it was the right move to focus on his relationship with this white girl. Obviously, why shouldn’t Barack Obama date a white girl? It was definitely not the problem and they spent quite some time to display that she was a very nice bright girl and that they were a good match. However, we all know that this relationship would eventually lead to nowhere so, after spending so much time arguing the merits of this union, they made it crumble rather unconvincingly. As a result, it made the whole thing seemed like a waste of time not only for Obama but also for the viewers. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing did struggle to be more than just an infomercial, it was still not bad though and I think it is worth a look.