Liberty Heights Movie Review 1999

Levinson heads back to Baltimore (for the fourth time) for his 1954 coming of age/family drama with his focus on the city's Jewish community and the Kurtzman family in particular. Nate (Mantegna) has a two-bit numbers racket and a failing burlesque house, college son Van (Brody) falls for a shiksa (Murphy), while high schooler Ben (Foster) is captivated by Sylvia (Johnson), the first black student in his class. It may be too early for Bob Dylan but the times were a-changin' indeed and Levinson takes an unsentimental, if heartfelt, look at his past.

Distribution

Warner Home Video, Inc., 5775 Linder Canyon Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91362, URL: http://whv.warnerbros.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 127 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Baltimore, Period Piece: 1950s, Judaism, Family Ties, Gambling, School Daze, African America

Screenplay

Barry Levinson

Cast

Adrien Brody, Joe Mantegna, Ben Foster, Bebe Neuwirth, Rebekah Johnson, Orlando Jones, Frania Rubinek, David Krumholtz, Richard Kline, Vincent Guastaferro, Carolyn Murphy, Justin Chambers, James Pickens, Anthony Anderson, Kiersten Warren

Cinematography

Christopher Doyle

Director

Barry Levinson

Music

Andrea Morricone

Producer

Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein, Baltimore Pictures, Spring Creek Productions, Warner Bros.