
Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955. Racial integration comes to the high school, TV is killing burlesque, and rock and roll is pushing the Four Lads off the Hit Parade. Ben, a high school senior, and his older brother Van are exploring "the other": in Ben's case, it's friendship with Sylvia, a Black student; with Van, it's a party in the WASP part of town and falling for a debutante, Dubbie. Sylvia g... (Full plot summary below)
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Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955. Racial integration comes to the high school, TV is killing burlesque, and rock and roll is pushing the Four Lads off the Hit Parade. Ben, a high school senior, and his older brother Van are exploring "the other": in Ben's case, it's friendship with Sylvia, a Black student; with Van, it's a party in the WASP part of town and falling for a debutante, Dubbie. Sylvia gives Ben tickets to a James Brown concert; Dubbie invites Van to a motel: new worlds open. Meanwhile, their dad Nate, who runs a numbers game, loses big to a small-time pusher, Little Melvin; a partnership ensues.
Leave your thoughts about Liberty Heights.
| New York Daily NewsJack MathewsLevinson is so skillful at developing personalities, even among the story's would-be villains, that by the halfway point of the movie, every gesture and expression has unexpected depth and texture. The performances are across-the-board superb. |
| VarietyTodd McCarthyBarry Levinson goes deep with Liberty Heights, and the result is a grand slam. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA mature, accomplished piece of work, both funny and deeply felt, personal cinema of the best kind...Levinson has made the memory film we always hoped he would. |
| Film.comTom KeoghLevinson is at the top of his game with Liberty Heights, his instincts acutely cinematic, his purpose clear. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertEmerges as an accurate memory of that time when the American melting pot, splendid as a theory, became a reality. |
| Mr. ShowbizKevin MaynardA uniquely personal, vibrant mosaic of the American dream, and like a dream, it evaporates beautifully before our eyes. |
| Washington PostDesson ThomsonDemonstrates what writer-director Levinson does best: evoke the sights, smells and atmosphere of his youth with intelligence, humor and a keen sense of social perspective. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenA languorous, funny and lovingly detailed memory film. |
| TimeRichard SchickelSeems to encompass all the humor, sadness and weirdness of ordinary life in an utterly winning, morally acute way. |
| CompuserveHarvey S. KartenLiberty Heights is an all-around rollicking piece of entertainment. |