Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

noralee There's very little reason for anyone younger than a boomer to see "Liberty Heights" (except for those doing historical research on what it was like to grow up in the '50's). The audience coming in after me was all senior citizens. The best part is how music is used to indicate different demographics (though not strictly accurate -- Tom Waits for burlesque? James Brown in 1954 -- shouldn't that have been Little Richard or Jackie Wilson?)While I'm a bit younger than the time portrayed, I grew up near Newark and it seems to have some similarities with Baltimore. I had similar experiences first discovering R & B on the NYC's old WWRL other than, as one character puts it in the film "regular radio," and in general had similar experiences with ethnic and racial de facto segregation (it was my Irish Catholic neighbor from parochial school who introduced me to racy Redd Fox and Moms Mabley records in her basement).Yes, I got carried away because the movie evokes nostalgia rather than cinematic reviews, because that's all it is --- a nostalgia bath.More coming-of-age Jewish princes lusting after schicksas and we do not get the Jewish woman's view point AT ALL. Don't we get enough of that from Woody Allen movies? At least the Jewish Mom is less stereotypical, being Bebe Neuwirth, getting to play a non-Lilith (as in "Frasier") Jewish mother, so she's sexy. Like with "A Walk on the Moon" last year the Yiddishe grandma is very similar to mine, so more nostalgia.It's well done for what it is.(originally written 12/19/1999)

gmr-4 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.

Jezebell Liberty heights is a great movie, full of laughter. It gives you a sense of history, as well as providing for a good, well rounded film. The acting is good, the script is well read, and the depiction of events is carried out in a unique fashion. ( Warning, almost spoiler) One of my favorite scenes is where Ben ( mind you , he's Jewish) dresses up as Hitler on Halloween! I highly recommend this movie! P.S - and to the above comment by TxMike, Im well under 50 and I understood and appreciated this film very much. Don't assume that the older you are, the more you'll understand. Im 17, for your information.9/10 (Liberty Heights)

cbellor 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