LIBERTY HEIGHTS (LH) is a fine addition to writer/director Barry Levinson's series of nostalgic autobiographical Baltimore-set films. This episodic but heartfelt comedy-drama, set in the mid-1950s, stars Adrien Brody and Ben Foster as brothers Van and Ben Kurtzman, who come of age while grappling with anti-Semitism, their loving dad's (Joe Mantegna) shady business dealings (he runs both a burlesque house and a low-profile numbers racket. My late dad, a bookie, would've loved this guy! :-), racism (Ben and his pretty black classmate Sylvia, appealingly played by Rebekah Johnson, start seeing each other on the sly), and classism (Van falls hard for blonde WASP dream girl Dubbie, who turns out to be a nightmare -- a tragic figure, in fact -- but is capably played by supermodel Carolyn Murphy in her first and, to date, only film role that I know of). While LH isn't quite as sharp and knowing as Levinson's modern classic DINER (with which LH would make an interesting double feature; the DVD includes the DINER trailer, by the way), it's rendered with great affection and attention to detail about the characters, their world, and the changing times they're living in. For me, the wittier moments really made the film -- Ben's anarchic streak livens things up, to say the least! Best Ben moments: 1) his scandalizing his family by dressing as Hitler on Halloween; 2) the act of defiance he and his friends eventually pull at the "NO JEWS..." pool; and 3) the tender yet chaste kiss he gives Sylvia at graduation, freaking out both sets of parents. LH is worth a rental, at the very least!

In Baltimore, 1954, the Kurtzman family is a Jewish family living in the area of Liberty Heights. Ben (Ben Foster) is a rebel teenager, who has a crush on his black friend Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson). His college brother Van falls in love with Dubbie (Carolyn Murphy – why this gorgeous actress has just this movie in her filmography?), a very problematic girl. He becomes friend of Trey Tobelseted (Justin Chambers), a young man from a very wealth family and boyfriend of Dubbie. Nate (the excellent Joe Mantegna) is the father, who lives from an illegal lottery of numbers. Nate loves his family and keeps them apart of his legal problems. Ada (Bebe Neuwirth) is the mother, who keeps the tradition of their family. Little Melvin (Orlando Jones) is a drug dealer, who wins a fortune of US$ 100,000 (in 1954) in Nate's lottery, raising a serious situation in the plot.

This movie is wonderful: the soundtrack, photography and costumes are marvelous. The story, about segregation of Jews and blacks and love between races, is very beautiful. The viewer will not be disappointed with this entertainment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ruas de Liberdade" ("Liberty Streets")

this was a fine film, if not anything to blow one's hair back, leave one humming, or slipping into the dialogue. The story was set in the mid-1950s, accurately looks the part, and is actually three tales involving the three males in a middle class family.

Yes, there is the treatment of racism and the self-consciousness that it spawns on both sides, and yes, the death throes of anti-semitism (at least among decent people). A middle-aged man finds he has outlived the world in which he came to prosper, and does not know what to do. There is something else: the "grass is always greener" hypothesis in ethnic/social class mixing. One of the protagonists meets his "shiksa goddess" and her lot, longs to cross a divide he does his best to bridge -- and finds his betters have feet of clay for all their poise and social standing.

LIBERTY HEIGHTS is in the best sense a North American story. Leaving one's ghetto, the benefits of learning to do so, and creation of a better world. Note how toward the end, the flawed and even cruel W.A.S.P. society boy becomes better for having accepted the hand of friendship of someone his father might have avoided.

From time to time one comes across remarkable films like Liberty Heights where simple story is told in extraordinary manner. This film is about the Jewish Kurtzman family, but we follow the father and his two sons as three separate stories. Each one of them having their own struggle and challenges to face. What struck me as the most amazing part of the story was the easiness of it, how it flowed and gently tackled serious issues in the community of that time. It portrait itself in a realistic manner, where there were no real baddies or large showdown, just people going through life. The performance of the actors was brilliant, with Joe Mantegna (the father), showing once more what a talent he is. This film won't leave anyone untouched. 8/10

I found "Liberty Heights" an immensely entertaining movie which shows great talent, especially actor-wise. The movie is a great portrayal of how things looked like in America in the 50's, showing religious, racial, social and other differences and also showing how these differences can easily be overcome once a person realizes(or as was the case in this movie-doesn't even consider) that different only and always means worse. Ben Foster steals the show from the first scene and Adrien Brody is in close second place. And because they had such screen persona, or power if you will, I found if distracting and a bit out of place when at the end the story shifted too much to Joe Mantegna, their movie father. I have much respect for the man, he's an immense and always fun-to-watch actor, but in this movie it was him that was overshadowed, which is ironic since HE was the one who usually did this. A great, lightheaded growing-up movie that begins and ends with a nostalgic note, once again making me wish I'd have a chance to live in that day and age. Much praise to Barry Levinson for composing "Liberty Heights". 8/10

This movie is sort of like the concept of the TV show Seinfeld-- it's about nothing. By this I don't mean that it lacks substance, in fact, it has plenty, but I mean rather that it does not involve an intense plot line. It's more like a series of snapshots taken out of one family's album, like a brief recording of one year in their lives. It's as if these people were real, simply going about their lives in their times, and we got to peek in on them, and it is acted in just that way. I think it's very true to director Barry Levinson's vision, a vision that is clear upon viewing his other films that he includes with Liberty Heights as his "Baltimore" films. These include Diner, Avalon, and Tin Men. Because this is not the typical problem arises-conflict ensues-climax is reached-conclusion is found film, Levinson shows us that these people's lives were a series of ups and downs, joys and losses, that summarize American middle-class youth in all ages in history. There connections between the different walks of life and the idea of growing up and discovering diversity around you is what makes this film universal and beautiful, all without handing you morals and themes on a silver platter. This film takes a wonderfully objective viewpoint that allows you to make meaning of it rather than spelling it out for you.

Liberty Heights illustrates Anti Semitism and race relations in the 1950's very well. It shows how two Jewish brothers find that there is a whole different world outside their insular Jewish community. Liberty Heights is an excellent film. Barry Levinson has created a gem of a film, another of the Baltimore series.

Barry Levinson's LIBERTY HEIGHTS begins telling it's story through a variety of different viewpoints, and at the outset may give off the vibe of being somewhat unfocussed, but do not be misled by the elusive opening! Although unexceptional in terms of it's standard coming of age plotline, as the film progresses it becomes increasingly thoughtful and observant. It is the small details that make LIBERTY HEIGHTS seem so rich--and I wouldn't dream of giving any of them away--but needless to say, by the end of the film anyone who remembers their childhood fondly is bound to leave the theatre with a smile on their face. In a quiet and unassuming way, the movie manages to throw out many messages to its audience. Every single subplot in the film relates back to the family. Joe Mantegna plays the racketeering patriarch of a nice uppper-middle class Jewish family that resembles a lighter version of the Corleone's in THE GODFATHER. One of the sons falls for a Catholic girl, while the other pursues the black daughter of a prominent city doctor. They all live with their grandmother who is blinded to the "gentiles" by the Holocaust. The relationships between the youngsters naturally conflict with the views of their parents, and they are forced to form their own opinions on racial boundaries.

What is so refreshing about LIBERTY HEIGHTS is that it doesn't pull obvious punches or go for the cheap thrills that more sensationalized Hollywood films normally would. Not even in a subplot with an eccentric drug dealer do the characters resort to violence as might be expected with this sort of material. The characters in LIBERTY HEIGHTS are just ordinary people in relatively ordinary situations. It is not a fast paced film, some may find the midsection to be a little over-inflated. Personally I enjoyed the film a great deal. It grew on me to the point that by the end I was drawn to tears. Even fully aware of its old fashioned Hollywood corniness the movie touched a nerve with me. I found the performances very moving--in particular that of young Ben Foster, who we should exepect to see again in the near future. Adrien Brody is appealing and sympathetic as the eldest son. Bebe Neuwirth manages to create some interesting moments in her role as matriarch of the Kurtzman family--particularly in the final scene. LIBERTY HEIGHTS is not a perfect film to be sure, but in a season with a shortage of intelligent family oriented films LIBERTY HEIGHTS is a solid bet.

This movie is challenging on many levels and best of all is it does not insult the viewer's intelligence with pat plot lines and easy resolutions. It is very much a slice of life movie and provokes serious thought about growing up and the meaning of prejudice and racial barriers. It is a lovely film and I have resolved to see some other efforts from Barry Levinson as his is a rare talent. He lovingly captures Baltimore in the fifties in all its facets of neighbourhoods, the cast is stellar, not a false note among them, the music is wonderful and all the plot lines come together. I felt sad that it was over, I found myself quite involved with the characters who were multi dimensional with teasing snippets of background as in the disturbed Dubbie saying to Van she did not like spending time with her father and his boyfriend. And Sylvia's family being black and wealthiest by far than the others and she was following her mother and grandmother into a Black College so she could preserve the continuance. 8 out of 10. Recommended.

This was a wonderful movie about coming of age. The characters in the movie were SO real, even though they were in high school in the '50s. Just shows how little people change in nature.

The movie followed three story lines very well: the older brother, the younger brother, and the father. They all had difficult-to-them things to deal with and each learned something valuable in the process, both about themselves and the world in which they lived.

Integrating the three story lines was done flawlessly. The movie was also very tastefully done -- a very wholesome movie in a world of trashy movies.

I went into this movie knowing next to nothing about the plot, except that it was set in the 50's. I was blown away by the movie. The cast was amazing. I applaud Ben Foster mostly because I am so glad to finally see him in something again. Everyone was amazing and completed the whole picture perfectly. The story was beautifully written and directed. I loved every last minute of it. It had all the emotions needed. I laughed, I cried, I got excited, and I was BLOWN AWAY! One of the best movies I have seen!

While hardly the gems that are Diner, and especially Avalon, Levinson here offers another sweet meditation on his Baltimore roots. The love story between Ben and Sylvia is especially moving to every white boy who ever fell in love with a black girl before it was acceptable, and most of the credit goes to the enchanting Rebekah Johnson. Older brother Van's travels in WASPland are more cliche-ridden, though one must salute the acting of Adrien Brody and his friend Trey, who actually make their unlikely friendship believable. Trey's deb girlfriend is pure cardboard. The real standouts here are Joe Mantegna and Orlando Jones going toe-to-toe in dangerously caricaturish territory. Both manage to pull it off. One anachronistic comment- Scribbles calls one of Nick's men the Pillsbury Jewboy--far as I know that advertising icon didn't appear till 10 years after the film's 1954-55 setting. Again, no one will call this film a classic, but seen as part of a 4 film whole (Tin Men is more the aberration than Liberty Heights) it stands proudly and pulls at these 40 year old heartstrings from a very similar North Bronx background.

This is a warm heartful movie that touches one in the memory like Diner did all those years ago. In this movie Levinson returns to his roots, and shows why he should stick to this type of material more often. It may not have the most concrete of plots. Each character has their own storyline which proves interesting and insightful, especially that of Ben and his inter-racial relationship with Sylvia. However, the point of the film is not what the story tells you. It is what you feel at the end of the movie. It is how you are drawn into a time gone past, it is how your memories are evoked by what you see on the screen. A brilliant film with warms the heart. Encore Barry.

This is a fine little movie, the kind we expect from Barry Levinson. Continuing in the tradition of Diner and Avalon, he has brought us a detailed, warm slice of American life, and with that provided us something to think about today. All the characters are people we care about and want to know more about. It is a shame this movie is being overlooked in the holiday season, but if it is playing near you, go see it. Though not as good as Diner or Avalon, Liberty Heights is superior to most anything else you will find at the multiplex.

A passable story about growing up Jewish in 1950's Baltimore, "Liberty Heights" lacks any consistent dramatic storyline, but deals with a variety of issues in a sensitive manner.

Seen largely through the eyes of two Jewish teenagers (Van and Ben Kurtzman, played by Adrien Brody and Ben Foster) and their father Nate (Joe Montegna) the movie deals with the social changes just beginning in the early 1950's. Nate owns a burlesque house long after burlesque has gone out of fashion, and runs a numbers game on the side, constantly risking charges. Meanwhile, Van and Ben deal with anti-Semitic feelings (swimming pools with signs that read "NO JEWS, DOGS OR COLOREDS ALLOWED), but at the same time also deal with the changes brought about by integration, making friends and making tentative steps toward romances with those of other ethnic groups. We get a sense throughout of the difficulty that people must have felt in being asked to give up long-standing social conditioning, and we see (perhaps unrealistically) that the young people are far more willing to break out of these restrictions than their parents.

The movie isn't all that exciting, but does provide an interesting slice-of-life perspective that makes it worth watching. I rated it as a 5/10.

It is the autumn of 1954 in Baltimore, and the Brown vs the Board of Education ruling is quickly bringing down racial barriers in this heretofore segregated city. "Liberty Heights" is told from the perspective of an insular Jewish family, primarily the family's two high-school age brothers. Both are on journeys of self-discovery, the older brother with hostile WASP gentiles, the younger with African-Americans. Both fall for girls from opposing racial camps.

In "Liberty Heights", Levinson again lovingly recreates 1950s Baltimore. You can tell he knows the lay of the land; it's etched in his heart. Like his other three Baltimore movies "Liberty Heights" is a labor of love. Thankfully Levinson did not stop with his 'Baltimore Trilogy', this is the fourth outing. And I hope there is a fifth, sixth, seventh...

Liberty heights is a great movie, full of laughter. It gives you a sense of history, as well as providing for a good, well rounded film. The acting is good, the script is well read, and the depiction of events is carried out in a unique fashion. ( Warning, almost spoiler) One of my favorite scenes is where Ben ( mind you , he's Jewish) dresses up as Hitler on Halloween! I highly recommend this movie! P.S - and to the above comment by TxMike, Im well under 50 and I understood and appreciated this film very much. Don't assume that the older you are, the more you'll understand. Im 17, for your information.

9/10 (Liberty Heights)

Liberty Heights is not an action movie, it isnt a film filled with stars , it does not have a twist and it isnt a film that makes you cry but it is a good movie. This is the story of a Jewish family , mainly the father and his two sons and basically how they live their lives. The father runs an illegal gambling racket ut gets into serious trouble, the older son is infactuated by an unabtainable girl who turns out to be more trouble than it's worth and the younger son befriends a black girl much to the disgust of both their parents. The film is funny in parts and does have a dig at the jewish,white and black groups without actually shoving political or moral messages down your throat. A nice movie. 7 out of 10.

I can relate a little to this film because I am also Jewish and can sympathize with being afraid to like someone just because of my religion (as this film states). But I don't completely go along with this film because this shows life in Baltimore, Maryland (writer/director/producer Barry Levinson grew up in Baltimore and has made several films in this area) and has life in strict religious Jewdiasm while I am sort of a, uh, reformed one. But that has nothing to do with this review, just trying to get a feel for the movie.

Anyway, this film is well made with scenes that people might find humorous (mainly by identifying with it) and also touching. Story follows a Jewish teen in Liberty Heights (a suburb of Baltimore) who goes through his years OK, but then meets a black girl and starts to really like her (which is a problem for both families). Pretty bright, but not exactly Levinson's best film to date. But it is a compassionate film with good stuff and Joe Montegna playing a orthodox Jewish father. A-

There's very little reason for anyone younger than a boomer to see "Liberty Heights" (except for those doing historical research on what it was like to grow up in the '50's). The audience coming in after me was all senior citizens.

The best part is how music is used to indicate different demographics (though not strictly accurate -- Tom Waits for burlesque? James Brown in 1954 -- shouldn't that have been Little Richard or Jackie Wilson?)

While I'm a bit younger than the time portrayed, I grew up near Newark and it seems to have some similarities with Baltimore. I had similar experiences first discovering R & B on the NYC's old WWRL other than, as one character puts it in the film "regular radio," and in general had similar experiences with ethnic and racial de facto segregation (it was my Irish Catholic neighbor from parochial school who introduced me to racy Redd Fox and Moms Mabley records in her basement).

Yes, I got carried away because the movie evokes nostalgia rather than cinematic reviews, because that's all it is --- a nostalgia bath.

More coming-of-age Jewish princes lusting after schicksas and we do not get the Jewish woman's view point AT ALL. Don't we get enough of that from Woody Allen movies? At least the Jewish Mom is less stereotypical, being Bebe Neuwirth, getting to play a non-Lilith (as in "Frasier") Jewish mother, so she's sexy. Like with "A Walk on the Moon" last year the Yiddishe grandma is very similar to mine, so more nostalgia.

It's well done for what it is.

(originally written 12/19/1999)

I saw all 4 of the so-called "Baltimore Quadrilogy" in sequence, and, while the first three were fantastic, Diner still rose to the top for me. It was the most real, most heartfelt, and most memorable. I put on LH thinking it would be "okay", and was shocked to see it just about right up there with Diner for all the same reasons. If you've seen Scorsese's "The Bronx Tale" with DeNiro, you might notice a resemblance, down to the "forbidden" teen interracial love plot. In Bronx Tale, the "mob" has a part, but with nothing terribly eventful. In both, the family and everyday storyline take precedence, as if the mob aspects were afterthoughts.

I can't say that the Jewish Mob background did LH justice, as Montagna just seemed too wishy-washy to be a front-line mobster. Montagna is a great actor, but I think he should have brought a little harder edge to the mob-orientated moments. He did fine as a father, though he could have had any occupation and the movie would not have been any the less for it. I strongly feel that if the movie did not have the mob element in it, and Montagna had a conventional occupation, the movie would have been perfect, and even more realistic than it was. The burlesque scenes again were a drag on what otherwise would have been a perfect "coming of age" film.

This movie comes very close to "Diner" quality, if not for the somewhat flawed "mob" subplots....well worth seeing though!

Van and Ben Kurtzman (Adrien Brody and Ben Foster) are two boys growing up in the '50s in "Liberty Heights," a 1999 Barry Levinson film. The film also stars Bebe Neuwirth and Joe Mantegna as their parents, and Orlando Jones as Little Melvin.

The film shows both the prevailing anti-Semitism and racism of the times, but some of it is done with humor. When Ben and a young black girl (Rebekah Johnson) become friends, she ends up hiding him in her bedroom closet - though they were just listening to music - because her father won't let her have white friends. Then Van can't understand why his mother won't let him out of the house dressed as Adolf Hitler on Halloween. And the boys have a special way of handling a pool that doesn't allow Jews.

Very effective performances from all involved, with Joe Mantagna wonderful as the patriarch of the family, who runs a burlesque house, then gets into numbers, and encounters a headache named Little Melvin.

Though phrases like "colored" and "Jew me down" are used in "Liberty Heights" to show the strength of prejudice, sadly, while people may be more careful of their language today, some of these feelings are still held by many. One only has to hear the drunken outbursts of Mel Gibson or the tirade from Michael Richards to know it's so.

So the more things change, the more they remain the same. The boys in "Liberty Heights" look for love, get into trouble, and learn responsibility, just as kids do today. Nevertheless, Levinson paints a great picture of life in the '50s and people's beliefs. Very good.

It is rare these days to find a film that contains original characters and stories. "Liberty Heights," while not perfect, fills the void for at least 2 hours.

The film tells three interconnected stories involving the Kurtzman family: Nate (Joe Mantegna), Ada (a criminally underused Bebe Neuwirth), Van (Adrien Brody) and Ben (Ben Foster). Ben runs an illegal numbers racket from behind the scenes of his burlesque show. Van is trying to woo a rich girl (Carolyn Murphy). Ben is romancing an African-American student, Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson), to the horror of both their families (the film takes place in 1954-1955).

All the actors do terrific work. None of them are in their comfort zone, and there isn't a single "off" performance. Joe Mantegna is solid as Nate. He's a good guy and a family man, despite his unsavory activities. Adrien Brody is also good as Van. It's a very understated performance, but we still feel for the guy. Of special note is Ben Foster. Foster has been churning out outstanding performances left and right in varied types of roles, and this is another great performance. He is so real, and the voice he uses is so different from the one he usually has. He's also immensely likable, which is especially noteworthy coming from a guy who would later play creepy psychos in "Alpha Dog" (where I first noticed him) and "3:10 to Yuma"). Rebekah Johnson and Carolyn Murphy are solid as well as the pursued girls, and Orlando Jones is suitably loopy in an off-the-wall performance (Levinson keeps him, like the film, a little too muzzled, however). Justin Chambers is very good as the near-alcoholic rich kid, who isn't as bad as he seems.

This is clearly a personal film for director Barry Levinson. It's another film in his Baltimore saga, but it's the first one of those movies that I've seen. After this, I'm going to check them out, but not immediately. The film is a little too understated; films that go this route have an added level of verisimilitude, but a little of this goes a long way, and especially in Adrien Brody's case, it's a little too understated to be believable. Some of the cross-cutting montages don't quite work either, although that's nitpicking (the worst example of this is in the end credits, which cuts from jazz to pop and back again with rather startling ineptitude, but this is the point where you're supposed to be turning off the TV anyway).

I'd recommend the film, but only if you're really into this kind of a movie, especially since it's a little on the long side.

My rating: PG-13 for language and thematic material.

Having never heard of this film before, and finding it by accident on cable TV, it was immediately recognizable as a Barry Levinson work. The Baltimore setting, the diner scenes, the close-ups on car hood ornaments, and other touches serve as identification markers of its author. It is interesting to see Levinson put Baltimore in quite a different light than he did in the TV series "Homicide". "Liberty Heights" follows the predictable plot-line of many coming-of-age movies, where things happen and then people talk about them. I kept waiting for something really bad to happen, someone to be killed or dragged before the HUAC, but nothing terrible happens at all. But far from spoiling the film, it allows the viewer to concentrate on the characters' experience and the changing direction of their lives. This is a film about Baltimore's distinct ethnic groups in the 1950's, but there is no sharp edge to it. Rather, "Liberty Heights" shows hope for tolerance and the breakdown of sharp socio-economic boundaries. The message is not hammered home; it's just there for the grasping if you wish to see it this way. Otherwise, it's a pleasantly diverting soap opera with typically Levinsonian cinematography, editing, and use of music.

Of all the many merits of this film mentioned by various reviewers it seems that the 'mood' of the cinematography doesn't get mentioned. Perhaps the most powerful of these elements are the cars; drop dead gorgeous American beauties of the age that perfectly reflect the warm mood of celebration of life that pervades the rest of the era. For all their social and individual problems, the protagonists all get to cruise around in these incredible automobiles. The Cadillac takes centre stage but the movie abounds with reverential shots of great cars like Pontiac Catalinas, Kaiser, Oldsmobiles etc. focusing the photography and sound on their most seductive features like 'rocket' hood ornaments and almost unreally beautiful colors. The Director caught America of the 1950s 'dead on' when he makes frequent mention of their seductive influence on the generation.