Watch The Full Trailer For ‘Barry’, The Barack Obama Netflix Film You Might Like Right Now
Get ready to see a whole lot of Obama films and TV over the next four years.
As the US readjusted to life under the Bush administration in the early 2000s, The West Wing became a famous liberal oasis. When people were mad or frustrated or scared by the state of real-world politics, they could turn to President Josiah Bartlett and his staff of idealistic young things for guidance.
The show offered a deliberate alternative reality to real events and stretched Long, Important Speeches from Good Men over a marathon seven years. It finished up just nine months before Barack Obama was named the Democratic presidential nominee, then those speeches entered the real world and we started rolling our eyes at The Newsroom.
Well, welcome to the start of a new era. Check out Barry: the first of many West Wings of the Trump presidency.
Directed by Vikram Gandhi (Kumaré), Barry tells the story of a young Barack Obama (Devon Terrell) fighting social injustices and figuring out family issues in New York during the 1980s. He’s just started at Columbia University and seems to be getting awful close to a girl (Anya Taylor-Joy) which, excuse me, is not Michelle Obama at all so what’s the point?
Barry premiered earlier this year at the Toronto International Film Festival to great reviews. Most critics tend to agree it’s less hammy biopic than character study which interrogates broader race relations in the US — it explores many issues which remain relevant to this day.
This is not the only recent film to look at the President’s life outside of office either. If you’d like more Michelle screen time, there’s also Southside With You. It was released in August — back when we weren’t desperate for any kind of hope or political inspiration and were content watching dorky rom coms about the President.
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Barry will be on Netflix from December 16.