It took until his two terms were nearly up, but Barack Obama is finally getting the big-screen treatment. While the standard life-spanning biopic likely won’t arrive until there’s some perspective, in 2016, we’ve seen two films that take a specific look at a crucial part of his formative years. Southside With You, which was released this past August, is a surprisingly moving look at his first date with Michelle, then at TIFF, Vikram Gandhi‘s Barry premiered. Following his college days in New York City, Devon Terrell takes the lead role and now the first brief teaser has arrived ahead of a Netflix debut in December.
We said in our review, “The racial tension in Adam Mansbach and Gandhi’s script is voyeuristic by simply, and smartly, showing us more than is explicitly said. Barry wants to be accepted, but he fears the path to acceptance will not come without major change in his country. He sees his brothers and sisters suffering daily, but is frustrated that he can’t do anything about it. A major decision for him would be to live outside of campus on West 109th, which would end up having him converse with black people on a daily basis, something he might not have previously done.”
Check out the trailer below for the film also starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Mitchell, Ellar Coltrane, Ashley Judd, and Jenna Elfman.
A young Barack Obama, known to his friends as “Barry,” arrives in New York City in the fall of 1981 to begin his junior year at Columbia University. In a crime-ridden and racially charged environment, Barry finds himself pulled between various social spheres and struggles to maintain a series of increasingly strained relationships with his Kansas-born mother, his estranged Kenyan father, and his classmates.Barry is the story of a young man grappling with those same issues that his country, and arguably the world, are still coming to terms with 35 years later.
Barry hits Netflix on December 16.