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Movies like Barry

Key Features:
Coming-of-age, Identity, Race relations, College life, New York City, Biopic, Historical figure, Self-discovery
Tone:
serious, restrained
Target Audience:
Biopic enthusiasts, Drama lovers, Viewers interested in social issues
Emotional Arc:
Introspection → Understanding

Barry

2016-09-10
Barry Poster - Find Similar Movies

A young Barack Obama forges his identity while dealing with race, divergent cultures and ordinary life as a New York City college student.

Genres
Drama
Cast
Devon Terrell, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Mitchell, Ellar Coltrane, Jenna Elfman, Linus Roache, Avi Nash, John Benjamin Hickey, Ashley Judd, Sawyer Pierce
Crew
Vikram Gandhi, Adam Mansbach
Rating
5.7(200 votes)
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Southside with You
5.645

Chronicles a single day in the summer of 1989 when the future president of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady on an epic first date across Chicago's South Side.



Malcolm X
Malcolm X(1992)
7.545

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.



The Education of Charlie Banks

College student Charlie Banks has to face old problems when the bully he had an unpleasant encounter with back in high school shows up on his campus.



Higher Learning
6.3

African-American student Malik is on a track scholarship; academics are not his strong suit, and he goes in thinking that his athletic abilities will earn him a free ride through college. Fudge, a "professional student" who has been at Columbus for six years so far, becomes friendly with Malik and challenges his views about race and politics in America.



Lymelife
Lymelife(2008)
6.1

A coming of age dramedy where infidelity, real estate, and Lyme disease have two families falling apart on Long Island in the early eighties. Scott, 15, is at the point in his life when he finds out that the most important people around him, his father, his mother, and his brother, are not exactly who he thought they were. They are flawed and they are human.



New York
New York(2009)
6.2

New York is a contemporary story of friendship set against the larger than life backdrop of a city often described as the centre of the world. Omar has gone abroad for the first time in his life and soon enough he begins to see and love America through the eyes of his American friends - Sam and Maya. It is the story of these three friends discovering a new world together.



Becoming
Becoming(2020)
7.236

Join former first lady Michelle Obama in an intimate documentary looking at her life, hopes and connection with others.



2016: Obama's America

"If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?" Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True to Americas ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of president, Barack Obama. What they didn't know is that Obama is a man with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him--who he is, how he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world.



Boogie
Boogie(2021)
5.7

Alfred “Boogie” Chin is a basketball phenom living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite college, Boogie must find a way to navigate a new girlfriend, high school, on-court rivals and the burden of expectation.



Metropolitan
6.9

A radical student is adopted by a group of young New Yorkers, serves as a catalyst to alter his and their lives. Gathering in a Manhattan apartment, the group of friends meet to discuss social mobility, Fourier's socialism and play bridge in their cocoon of upper-class society - until they are joined by a man with a critical view of their way of life.



Passing
Passing(2021)
6.257

In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.



Class Act
Class Act(1992)
6.142

Duncan is a genius straight A student, Blade is juvenile delinquent. But because of a mix up with their school records, everyone thinks each is the other one. Now, Duncan kind of likes the attention from being thought of as a real bad dude, if only the school bully would stop trying to rough him up. And Blade definitely likes being thought of as important instead of as trouble.



Geography Club
6.2

A coming-of-age movie that tells a story unfolding in every high school around the country -- a story of kids hiding their true identities in plain sight, even as they feverishly pursue their hearts' desires.



Young Winston
6.18

This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.



Black and White
4.613

Rich Bower is an up-and-coming star in the hip-hop world. Everyone wants to be around him, including Raven and her fellow upper-class white high school friends. The growing appeal of black culture among white teens fascinates documentary filmmaker Sam Donager, who sets out to chronicle it with her husband, Terry. But before Bower was a rapper, he was a gangster, and his criminal past comes back to haunt him and all those around him.



Moonlight
Moonlight(2016)
7.4

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.



The Breakfast Club
7.727

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.



Love, Simon
8

Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.



So Young
So Young(2013)
6.167

Although new friendships and new love await her, a college freshman discovers that university life is not as simple as she had hoped.



Storytelling
6.5

College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.



The Narrows
5.76

A 19 year old Brooklyn boy who is torn between two worlds when his photography portfolio wins him a partial scholarship to NYU. He must figure out how to balance his Italian neighborhood roots with the expansive, sophisticated world on the other side of the East River. Based on Tim McLoughlin's novel "Heart of the Old Country".



Soul Man
Soul Man(1986)
5.3

A white prospective grad student's affluent family won't pay his way through law school, so he takes tanning pills to darken his skin in order to qualify for an African-American scholarship at Harvard. He soon gets more than he bargained for, as he begins to learn what life is really like for blacks in America.



Dope
Dope(2015)
7.061

Malcolm is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews, and the SAT. A chance invitation to an underground party leads him into an adventure that could allow him to go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself.



Eighth Grade
7.2

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.



Kids
Kids(1995)
6.9

A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking and deflowering virgins.



Brad's Status
6.256

Although Brad has a satisfying career, a sweet wife and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento, things aren't quite what he imagined during his college glory days. When he accompanies his musical prodigy son on a university tour, he can't help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends who seemingly have more wealthy and glamorous lives. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or if their lives are actually more flawed than they appear.



School Daze
5.651

Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.



A Complete Unknown
7.104

New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.



Liberty Heights
6.604

This semi-autobiographical film by Barry Levinson follows various members of the Kurtzman clan, a Jewish family living in suburban Baltimore during the 1950s. As teenaged Ben completes high school, he falls for Sylvia, a black classmate, creating inevitable tensions. Meanwhile, Ben's brother, Van, attends college and becomes smitten with a mysterious woman while their father tries to maintain his burlesque business.



The Sun Is Also a Star

Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.



Lincoln
Lincoln(2012)
6.855

The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.



The First Grader
7.1

The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.



Roxanne Roxanne
6

The most feared battle emcee in the early 1980s in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects. At the age of 14, Roxanne Shanté was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend, as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the street.



The Forty-Year-Old Version

Desperate for a breakthrough as she nears the big 4-0, struggling New York City playwright Radha finds inspiration by reinventing herself as a rapper.



Boys and Girls
5.943

Ryan and Jennifer are opposites who definitely do not attract. At least that's what they always believed. When they met as twelve-year-olds, they disliked one another. When they met again as teenagers, they loathed each other. But when they meet in college, the uptight Ryan and the free-spirited Jennifer find that their differences bind them together and a rare friendship develops.



White Girl
5.7

Summer, New York City. A college girl falls hard for a guy she just met. After a night of partying goes wrong, she goes to wild extremes to get him back.



The Prince & Me
6.207

A fairy tale love-story about pre-med student Paige who falls in love with a Danish Prince "Eddie" who refused to follow the traditions of his parents and has come to the US to quench his thirst for rebellion. Paige and Edward come from two different worlds, but there is an undeniable attraction between them.



James White
6.574

James White is a troubled twentysomething trying to stay afloat in a frenzied New York City. As he retreats further into a hedonistic lifestyle, his mother's battle with a serious illness faces a series of setbacks that force him to assume more responsibility. With the pressure on him mounting, James must find new reserves of strength or risk imploding completely.



Marshall
Marshall(2017)
7.243

Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.



That's What I Am
6.8

A coming-of-age story that follows 12-year-old Andy Nichol, a bright student who, like most kids his age, will do anything to avoid conflict for fear of suffering overwhelming ridicule and punishment from his junior high school peers.



Diary of a Wimpy Kid
6.256

Greg Heffley is headed for big things, but first he has to survive the scariest, most humiliating experience of any kid’s life – middle school! That won’t be easy, considering he’s surrounded by hairy-freckled morons, wedgie-loving bullies and a moldy slice of cheese with nuclear cooties!



Snowden
Snowden(2016)
7.105

CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.



The Apprentice
6.897

A young Donald Trump, eager to make his name as a hungry scion of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn, the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.



Anita, Swedish Nymphet

Anita, a young woman with a troubled childhood and a hunger for love, finds a soul mate in Erik, a kindly college student.



Mistress America
6.5

A college freshman cures her disappointment and loneliness by allowing herself to be pulled into the wacky schemes of her future stepsister.



The Banker
7.6

In the 1960s, two entrepreneurs hatch an ingenious business plan to fight for housing integration—and equal access to the American Dream.



Shortcomings
6

When his girlfriend leaves for New York City on a 3-month-long internship, a strongly opinionated Berkeley arthouse movie theater manager begins exploring life as a bachelor.



The Sweet East
6.571

A high school senior from South Carolina gets her first glimpse of the wider world, picturesque cities, and woods of the Eastern seaboard on a class trip to Washington, D.C.



Beach Rats
6.051

On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men.



The Trotsky
6.667

Leon Bronstein is not your average Montreal West high school student. For one thing, none of his peers can claim to be the reincarnation of early 20th century Soviet iconoclast and Red Army hero, Leon Trotsky. When his father sends Leon to public school as punishment for starting a hunger strike at Papa's clothing factory, Leon quickly lends new meaning to the term 'student union', determined as he is to live out his pre-ordained destiny to the fullest and change the world.



Threesome
Threesome(1994)
6.4

At a sizable public college, high-minded student Eddy is forced to room with the slovenly Stuart, but the pair strike up a surprising friendship. When attractive co-ed Alex is assigned to live with the two male students because of her gender-neutral name, a roundabout love triangle ensues. Eddy secretly yearns for Stuart, who wants Alex, but she prefers Eddy. The complex situation leads to sexual experimentation and strained relationships.



After
After(2019)
7.115

Tessa Young is a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart. Entering her first semester of college, Tessa's guarded world opens up when she meets Hardin Scott, a mysterious and brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wants out of life.



The Namesake
6.7

After moving from Calcutta to New York, members of the Ganguli family maintain a delicate balancing act between honoring the traditions of their native India and blending into American culture. Although parents Ashoke and Ashima are proud of the sacrifices they make to give their children opportunities, their son Gogol strives to forge his own identity without forgetting his heritage.



Basquiat
Basquiat(1996)
6.616

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.



Prom Pact
Prom Pact(2023)
7.211

It's prom season, and high school senior Mandy and her best friend and fellow outsider Ben are surrounded by over-the-top "promposals." Mandy is only focused on getting into her dream school Harvard, but as she starts tutoring basketball all-star Graham, she must re-evaluate whether her dream school is worth the cost of everything she believes in.



SubUrbia
SubUrbia(1997)
6.2

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.



Dark Matter
5.5

Liu Xing a brilliant Chinese student, arrives at University and makes the transition into American life with the help of Joanna Silver. Xing joins a cosmology group working to create a model of the origins of the universe. He is obsessed with the study of dark matter and a theory that conflicts with the group's model. When he begins to make breakthroughs of his own, he encounters obstructions.



Made in America
5.5

A young black woman discovers that her father was a sperm donor, and if that wasn't bad enough, he's white.



Boyz n the Hood
7.624

In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war...



Bloomington
6.503

A former child actress attends college in search of independence and ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor. Their relationship thrives until an opportunity to return to acting forces her to make life-altering decisions.



Call Me by Your Name

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.



An Education
6.9

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.



Liberal Arts
6.45

Newly single, 35, and uninspired by his job, Jesse Fisher worries that his best days are behind him. But no matter how much he buries his head in a book, life keeps pulling Jesse back. When his favorite college professor invites him to campus to speak at his retirement dinner, Jesse jumps at the chance.



Birds of America
5.4

A regular guy struggles with a repressive home and professional life, as well as making amends for the trouble his free-spirited brother and sister cause about town.



Rustin
Rustin(2023)
6.525

Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.



Reality Bites
6.564

A small circle of friends suffering from post-collegiate blues must confront the hard truth about life, love and the pursuit of gainful employment. As they struggle to map out survival guides for the future, the Gen-X quartet soon begins to realize that reality isn't all it's cracked up to be.



Abe
Abe(2020)
6.929

A 12-year-old boy from Brooklyn tries to unite his half-Israeli and half-Palestinian family through cooking.



Woody Allen: A Documentary

An intense portrait of the iconic filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian and musician Woody Allen: his life, family and friends; his writing and directing habits, and his relationship with performers.



School Ties
6.5

When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.



In the Heights
7.1

The story of Usnavi, a bodega owner who has mixed feelings about closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic or staying in Washington Heights.



American Loser
5.186

A dramatic comedy about a self-induced attention-deficit disordered, learning disabled, Tourette's syndrome suffering, balance impaired, ex-alcoholic young man from the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the gold-digging girl who inspires him to try to get it together.



The City of Your Final Destination

28-year-old Kansas University doctoral student Omar Razaghi wins a grant to write a biography of Latin American writer Jules Gund. Omar must get through to three people who were close to Gund – his brother, widow, and younger mistress – so he can get authorization to write the biography.



G
G(2002)
6.598

A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.



Fame
Fame(1980)
6.4

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.



Coming to America
6.9

An African prince decides it’s time for him to find a princess... and his mission leads him and his most loyal friend to Queens, New York. In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince quickly finds himself a new job, new friends, new digs, new enemies and lots of trouble.



Generation Um...
3.9

A drama that follows three adults during a single day in New York, one filled with sex, drugs, and indecision.



About Alex
6.082

When a group of old college friends reunite over a long weekend after one of them attempts suicide, old crushes and resentments shine light on their life decisions, and ultimately push friendships and relationships to the brink.



Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

After moving to New Jersey, Lola bags a coveted role in a school play, which earns her the wrath of Carla, the most popular girl in school, who will do anything to ruin Lola's life.



Keith
Keith(2008)
7.042

Natalie is high school royalty, but her queen bee status falls apart when she falls for the new guy at school. Although Keith ignores her at first, they soon become friends -- even though Natalie suspects that Keith has something to hide. As the free-spirited Keith shows Natalie how to embrace what life offers, they grow closer -- until a secret tests the bounds of their relationship



Terri
Terri(2011)
6.325

Terri, a pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of Mr. Fitzgerald, his assistant principal.



Dance Academy: The Movie

This 2017 movie follows the original dance academy TV show and tracks where the characters are in their lives now.



Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

A new school year, his brother Rodrick teases him over and over and over and over again. Will Greg manage to get along with him? Or will a secret ruin everything?



Those People
6.9

On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.



Baked in Brooklyn
5.2

A recent college graduate decides to sell marijuana on the streets of Manhattan after losing his job at a consulting firm. He soon meets the girl of his dreams. With an unsupportive girlfriend, an increase of clienteles, and the growing threats of being caught or killed, he soon realizes he is in way over his head.



Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Greg Heffley is a scrawny but ambitious kid with an active imagination and big plans to be rich and famous – he just has to survive middle school first.



Benjamin
Benjamin(2019)
6.15

Benjamin, a rising star filmmaker, is on the brink of premiering his difficult second film No Self at the London Film Festival when Billie, his hard drinking publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah.



The Basketball Diaries

A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.



Student Of The Year

Several alumni reminisce about their final year at St. Theresa's College and the events that shaped their lives.



Chhichhore
7.658

Following a group of friends from university as they progress into middle-age life and go their own separate ways.



The Best Man Holiday

When college friends reunite after 15 years over the Christmas holidays, they discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be reignited.



Genius
Genius(1999)
6.134

Charlie Boyle finds that even his high IQ can't solve all of his problems when he takes on a double life in order to make friends his own age.



The Bridge
6.224

The sweeping tale of Molly Callens and Ryan Kelly, two young students who share a profound friendship their first semester in college, a time that becomes the defining moment of their lives.



A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon

A recent high school graduate is faced with two options, either go to a business school where his father wants him to go to, or get a full time job. However he decides to defy his father and go to Hawaii. Trouble is he has no money. Along the way he comes to understand his parents and eventually bonds with his father.



Harriet
Harriet(2019)
7.3

The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.



Jonathan
Jonathan(2018)
5.871

Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.



Cherry
Cherry(2010)
6.256

Ivy League Freshman, Aaron Milton (17) gets a different kind of education when he falls for Linda (34) a vivacious former wild-child who has returned to college to straighten out her life. The curriculum gets more challenging when Aaron meets Linda's sarcastic 14 year-old daughter, Beth - who quickly develops a crush on him. The math doesn't work in either direction but the dysfunctional triangle becomes a learning experience for all involved.



Try Seventeen
6.202

Teenager Jones has opted not to go to college and is instead renting a room in a boarding house to work on his writing skills. Soon, Jones finds himself dividing his time between two women: a young actress named Lisa and a photographer named Jane. After Jane's ex-boyfriend arrives to help her recover from a car accident, Jones begins to understand just how much he cares for her.



White Frog
5.8

Story of a neglected teen with mild Asperger’s syndrome whose life is changed forever when tragedy hits his family.



Rebirth
Rebirth(2016)
4.741

A man's life is turned inside out after a visit from his college friend leads him into the unexpected.

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