72
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyBarry emerges as an involving and credible portrait of a smart young man with a good deal of growing and learning yet to do.
- 80VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanYou could almost watch Barry even if you’d never heard of Barack Obama: The movie is simply interested in what it looks like when a guy who’s got this much going for him has a piece missing.
- 80The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanThe movie is rich on its own as a character piece about the difficulties of being bi-racial, especially at the very specific location of Columbia University.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranIn some ways, Barry the film takes its personality from Barry himself. Always pleasant and companionable but a little pro forma in its early going, it gains in texture and interest as Obama's life and his reaction to it get more complex.
- 75The PlaylistNoel MurrayThe PlaylistNoel MurrayThere’s something widely relatable about the way Barry tries to find somewhere to fit in, and preferably in a place where he can be himself and not somebody else’s symbol.
- 75The Film StageJordan RuimyThe Film StageJordan RuimyWhereas the aforementioned Southside With You was a calm, romantic watch, this is a serious and refined drama which has the feel of a political firecracker.
- 75The A.V. ClubA.A. DowdThe A.V. ClubA.A. DowdBarry doesn’t so much offer glimmers of the man Obama would become as lay experiential groundwork for his later life choices.
- 70TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleIt hasn’t always been easy trying to figure out what’s going through the mind of the 44th president of the United States, but Barry is a satisfyingly curious, honest attempt to make his inner struggle a beautiful part of this groundbreaking statesman’s biography.
- 67IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichBarry loses its way when it reduces itself to a tacky diorama of its protagonist’s inner turmoil, and it does so frequently enough to dismantle any sense of narrative momentum.
- 60Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonIn presenting its story as a portrait of a budding great statesman discovering his destiny, Barry is neither insightful nor poetic enough to justify its increasingly didactic approach.