Liberty Heights (1999)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Beautiful, moving film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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.

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")

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

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