As if to capitalize on the intense nostalgia many folks are no doubt experiencing right now in the midst of this ridiculous election season, 2016 has bequeathed us not one but two feature films about Barack Obama, pre-presidency. The first one released earlier this year, Southside With You, was a Before Sunrise–esque romantic drama that followed young summer associate Barack and attorney Michelle on their first date around Chicago. The second, Netflix’s upcoming original movie Barry, takes us even further back into Obama’s past: his college years.
The first teaser doesn’t communicate much beyond a mood—there’s no dialogue, only the soulful groove of “Nobody Knows” by Pastor T.L. Garrett and the Youth for Christ Choir and Australian actor Devon Terrell as the man himself, wandering through different spaces and times (various hallways, Columbia University’s campus; a dance party). Though as Slate writer Sam Adams, who has already seen the film, notes, we can expect Barry to take on a different, slightly more apathetic Obama than what we got in Southside With You: “Politics is bullshit,” the future president says. “The president is an actor.”
Barry arrives on Netflix Dec. 16.
