just watch it!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

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.

One of Barry Levinson's many movies about growing up in Baltimore, "Liberty Heights" portrays a Jewish family in 1954-55. Specifically, patriarch Nate (Joe Mantegna) runs a burlesque house, older son Van (Adrien Brody) has the hots for a Grace Kelly lookalike but may have trouble getting to her, and younger son Ben (Ben Foster) develops a relationship with an African-American girl in his class.This movie isn't intended as a massive historical epic or period piece (although I certainly got the feeling of the 1950s). I interpreted it mostly as a look at the changing world - namely school integration - that the family inhabits. The movie looks at racism: Nate and his friends are selling their business to African-American fast talker Melvin (Orlando Jones (happy birthday, Orlando!)), which the authorities clearly don't like. But it also looks at anti-Semitism: there's a particularly memorable scene in which a Jewish teenager pretends to be Scandinavian (and I mean all of Scandinavia). But the world is clearly changing, whether in learning about "the other kind" or determining the descending order of racial condescension.Overall, I recommend it. Maybe it isn't Levinson's best movie, but worth seeing. Also starring Ralph Tabakin and Carolyn Murphy...and let me tell you: SHE IS REALLY HOT!!!!!!!!!!

I love this movie. I just watched it last night. Thank God my library had a copy of it, because my local Blockbuster does not have a copy of it. It is an excellent movie, the acting, costumes, production, directing, script and directing. I love Ben Foster, he certainly did a great job in this movie, as he always does.Spoiler Alert!It surprised me that on Halloween night Ben Kurtzman, (Ben Foster) dresses up as Adolf Hitler being that the family is Jewish. I knew the parents would be appalled. A funny part is the scene in the kitchen when he was talking about the ass story that is in the Bible. Ha, Ha, Ha.

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