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.

I found "Liberty Heights" an immensely entertaining movie which shows great talent, especially actor-wise. The movie is a great portrayal of how things looked like in America in the 50's, showing religious, racial, social and other differences and also showing how these differences can easily be overcome once a person realizes(or as was the case in this movie-doesn't even consider) that different only and always means worse. Ben Foster steals the show from the first scene and Adrien Brody is in close second place. And because they had such screen persona, or power if you will, I found if distracting and a bit out of place when at the end the story shifted too much to Joe Mantegna, their movie father. I have much respect for the man, he's an immense and always fun-to-watch actor, but in this movie it was him that was overshadowed, which is ironic since HE was the one who usually did this. A great, lightheaded growing-up movie that begins and ends with a nostalgic note, once again making me wish I'd have a chance to live in that day and age. Much praise to Barry Levinson for composing "Liberty Heights". 8/10

this was a fine film, if not anything to blow one's hair back, leave one humming, or slipping into the dialogue. The story was set in the mid-1950s, accurately looks the part, and is actually three tales involving the three males in a middle class family. Yes, there is the treatment of racism and the self-consciousness that it spawns on both sides, and yes, the death throes of anti-semitism (at least among decent people). A middle-aged man finds he has outlived the world in which he came to prosper, and does not know what to do. There is something else: the "grass is always greener" hypothesis in ethnic/social class mixing. One of the protagonists meets his "shiksa goddess" and her lot, longs to cross a divide he does his best to bridge -- and finds his betters have feet of clay for all their poise and social standing.LIBERTY HEIGHTS is in the best sense a North American story. Leaving one's ghetto, the benefits of learning to do so, and creation of a better world. Note how toward the end, the flawed and even cruel W.A.S.P. society boy becomes better for having accepted the hand of friendship of someone his father might have avoided.

A coming-of-age period piece set in post-war America, seen through the eyes of a Jewish teenager? I thought it'd be merely a series of boring vignettes like BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS. Instead, LIBERTY HEIGHTS was interesting, intelligent and fairly original as these things go. The characters were compelling, the soundtrack wonderful (though the score was a little too schmaltzy), and the acting...Well, the two actors with the most screen time were, in a word, excellent. It was obvious in 1999 that Adrien Brody was bound for stardom (this was first evident in SUMMER OF SAM, released earlier the same year). A terrific, subtle actor, the man oozes understated charm, and the camera loves that beautiful beak of his. (Note to self: Next on my Brody rent list is Soderbergh's KING OF THE HILL. Hope he's actually in the movie, so I won't be disappointed like I was with NEW YORK STORIES.) But if I had to pick a lead actor among the ensemble cast of LIBERTY HEIGHTS, it would not be Brody. It'd be his onscreen brother Ben Foster (last seen in "Six Feet Under" as the most recent of Claire's boyfriends). This kid (sorry, anyone born in the 1980s is a kid to me) has got some seriously underused acting chops. When he wasn't onscreen I kept wanting the movie to get back to his story, and the wise script had only partly to do with that. Good thing he didn't take the Freddie Prinze route to his career; hopefully this means Foster will always be able to find roles in movies that matter.While the guys' performances (including Joe Mantegna and even Orlando Jones) were terrific, the women's weren't quite as. Bebe Neuwirth, as the mother was adequate (though it seemed a little odd seeing her as Brody's mom, considering she's only fourteen years older than he and they both had half-nude scenes in SUMMER OF SAM). But the love interests of the brothers, despite being superficially attractive, lacked screen presence and the ability to deliver their lines with conviction. I wasn't surprised to learn from IMDb that one is primarily a singer, the other a model. [Allow me to go off topic and note, for no reason, that several actors in LIBERTY HEIGHTS have appeared together in other movies:Adrien Brody & Bebe Neuwirth: SUMMER OF SAMDavid Krumholtz & Anthony Anderson: TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAMEKevin Sussman & Gideon Jacobs: WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMERMarty Lodge & Jan Austell: RANDOM HEARTSWhat's up with that? These aren't even counting the presumably local Baltimore actors who have been cast in both John Waters and Barry Levinson movies. Does this happen often and I just don't notice it?]And we're back. As in TIN MEN, Levinson indulges here his fetishistic love for the cars of the '50s (the final shot is of a gleaming white Cadillac in a dealership's showroom). The songs of the era - from James Brown to Frank Sinatra - are used as character development instead of just cheap nostalgia. The script is clear-eyed about what it wants to say about life back then, dealing with bigotry and the effects of a newly integrated society, and doesn't view the past through rose-colored glasses. It just tells it like it was, honestly and without judgment. One theme of the movie I responded to was how we idealize the object of our affection. It's never nice to realize your Cinderella who looks like a demure Anna Nicole Smith sans vacuousness can turn out to be a boozy nymphet with low self-esteem (like, say, Anna Nicole Smith).LIBERTY HEIGHTS does have its flaws. The editing could have been smoother (some scenes seem to end before they should), and there feels to be about ten minutes of deleted scenes that may have strengthened the characters' relationships (the only one on the DVD isn't one of them). And I didn't quite buy the details in one sequence concerning a financial transaction. But these imperfections are not major enough to ruin the movie. 7/10