moonspinner55 Two brothers and their teenage friends come-of-age in a Jewish neighborhood of Baltimore, circa 1954. Glossy, friendly story of wry humor and heartache in turbulent times of change gets careful, loving treatment from writer-director Barry Levinson, who obviously has great affection for this time and place. Levinson examines the intricate, often touchy relationships between the two minority groups, the Jews and the blacks--apparently there were no gays in 1950s Baltimore--versus the wealthy white gentiles. It's all taken with abrasive sugar and spice (and lots of comically clueless talk of sex), yet some of these paths are familiar. There's the sensitive, handsome Jew who falls for the cool blonde society beauty (a deceptive package); his brother develops a crush on a black girl in his class, whose father forbids her to see him again; the Jewish patriarch, a burlesque club manager, runs a numbers racket with a black partner and gets arrested. Levinson's script is well-written, and his cast is likable, but these episodes are like reruns--right down to the nosy Jewish bubby and the white boys' first trip to an all-black rock and roll show. Amiable enough, and preferable in the end to Levinson's similar "Diner". **1/2 from ****

southwest3210-156-400970 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!

blanche-2 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.

cbellor Liberty Heights shows us a world that hasn't been seen too often inmovies. No, I'm not talking about the 50's. I'm talking about JewishAmerican families suffering from prejudice in a country where they arestill not allowed in Anglo majority swimming areas - all this, only 10years after Europe's holocaust. The film's main characters are Ben and Van Kurtzman. Ben is a characterwho is appealing in that he is a young man who thinks for himself in asociety where everyone else has conformed to the same sentiments towardsrace, sex, and religion. Ben goes so far as to go out with a blackgirl, question prayer in school, and dress up as Hitler on Halloween. This last thing obviously makes his mom flip out. Ben's brother Van alsopursues a girl outside his ethnic group, however he is not taking as biga risk as his curious younger brother. The scene in which Ben is toldoff by his mom for dressing up as Hitler is a great example ofcontradiction considering that this women who is prejudiced againstblacks is shouting at her son for dressing up as a man who was equallyprejudiced against Jews. You get the sense that director Barry Levinson may be trying to tell theaudience through Ben that while growing up, everything in life is worthquestioning - just because your parents, friends, or religion sayssomething is right or wrong doesn't necessarily mean it is. Unfortunately, Levinson doesn't quite relay these ideals as well as hecould have. Instead, he insists on familiarizing us with the illegalgoings on of Ben's father in a mild strip club. This subplot comes offas awkward, uncompelling, and a little unecessary in a film centeredaround two sons' journeys down different roads. Final note: This film is worth seeing, however it's a shame it wasn't