Liberty Heights (1999)
This semi-autobiographical film by Barry Levinson follows various members of the Kurtzman clan, a Jewish family living in suburban Baltimore during the 1950s. As teenaged Ben completes high school, he falls for Sylvia, a black classmate, creating inevitable tensions. Meanwhile, Ben's brother, Van, attends college and becomes smitten with a mysterious woman while their father tries to maintain his burlesque business.
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The Worst Film Ever
Excellent but underrated film
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
It's 1954. Ben Kurtzman (Ben Foster) comes from the northwest section of Baltimore in a Jewish neighborhood. There is institutionalized anti-Semitism. He lives with his older brother Van (Adrien Brody), mother Ada (Bebe Neuwirth), father Nate (Joe Mantegna) and grandma. Integration is bringing in blacks and Ben falls for Sylvia as she introduces him to black culture. Van obsesses over blonde WASP princess Dubbie. Her complicated boyfriend Trey Tobelseted takes him under his wing to the confusion of his racist friend Ted. Nate runs the numbers and has a burlesque theater as his legitimate business. Small-time weed pusher Little Melvin (Orlando Jones) hits it big on the numbers.Filmmaker Barry Levinson brings his Baltimore hometown onto the screen. I don't find Ben Foster's side of the story that compelling when it probably should be the A story. The more fascinating story is Adrien Brody and his obsession with Dubbie and her complicated relationship with Trey. Also Yussel is a funny character. There is some great music like James Brown in the movie and it's a terrific era for that. I wish the movie has more period rock music integrated into its tone.
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.
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!
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.