Review of Barry (2016) by Scraper — 17 Dec 2016

Netflix has production values down pat. Barry employs patient cinematography, lighting that compliments mood and tone, and Devon Terrell's Obama is spot on without being a caricature. However, the film's foundation is a faulty one.

It cruises on the idea that despite the fact that Barack Obama is the most influential political figure of my generation, he still experienced that same raw journey living in the city that we all did.

I kept wondering why the writers would think it would be shocking or provocative to show him drinking, smoking, and flirting. 90% of the experiences didn't seem worth talking about. Politically, Obama was represented with a few pieces of knowledge that we've known about him and expanded into soft, semi-clever, brief dialogue.

It was as if the writer really didn't know enough about the man so to avoid misrepresentation they didn't include details and idiosyncrasies. Someone took a few pages of his college years and stretched it into and hour and half.

The material was honestly quite dull for such an interesting guy. There are some people in the midwest who collect Elvis memorabilia. Their whole house is filled with tacky Elvis stuff everywhere. This is one for the Obama collectors.