Liberty Heights

It is Baltimore in 1954 and everything is changing.

In this year, school desegregation is happening for the first time, bringing black and white children from different neighborhoods into the same classrooms.

In this year, the dawning of rock'n'roll is giving teenagers their first slice of a musical world that will become uniquely their own.

In this year, the influx of automobiles becomes a powerful force in America, allowing people the mobility and privacy to travel at will -- to see things right in their own hometowns that were previously unknown to them.

And in this year, the Kurtzman family develops a newly heightened understanding of what it means to be Jewish in a rapidly growing world.

Funny and dramatic, "Liberty Heights" is a look at the fabric of life at a pivotal time in American social history. In this, the fourth of his Baltimore-based films, Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson revisits his home, the location of some his most memorable work, including "Diner," "Tin Men" and "Avalon." This time he examines the changing times of the mid-1950s and the issues of race, class and religious distinction as seen through the eyes of a Jewish family, Nate (Joe Mantegna) and Ada (Bebe Neuwirth) Kurtzman, their sons Van (Adrien Brody) and Ben (Bem Foster), and their friends.

Through the eyes of two generations, 1954 becomes the year that tests and transforms the familiar lives and identities of these people in a rapidly changing world. (Synopsis from levinson.com)

Rating: 'Liberty Heights" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sexual situations, a glimpse of nudity and some strong language.

Written and directed by Barry Levinson; director of photography, Chris Doyle; edited by Stu Linder; music by Andrea Morricone; production designer, Vincent Peranio; produced by Levinson and Paula Weinstein; released by Warner Brothers. Running time: 134 minutes. This film is rated R.

Cast: Adrien Brody (Van), Bebe Neuwirth (Ada), Joe Mantegna (Nate), Ben Foster (Ben), Orlando Jones (Little Melvin), Rebekah Johnson (Sylvia), David Krumholtz (Yussel), Richard Kline (Charlie), Vincent Guastaferro (Pete), Justin Chambers (Trey) and Carolyn Murphy (Dubbie).

Reviews

Stephen Holden, New York Times
"As its inviting period soundtrack fills in the background and its youthful characters lurch through their pseudo-sophisticated rituals of rebellion and desire, the gawky sincerity of an earlier era comes stumbling back, a little tipsy and poignantly alive."

iF Magazine
"While studio funded, Levinson’s Baltimore films are quintessentially indie. They have a look and feel all their own – yet they’re so personal and uncommercial in many respects that it’s amazing he continues to get financing for them."

culturevulture.net
"Liberty Heights is Levinson's most loving paean to Baltimore yet, but perhaps the slightest."

Want to Know More?

Official Site
Brought to you courtesy of Warner Bros.

"Levinson Shares More Of His Life With The World"
Article from the Dodge Globe about the director and this film.

Barry Levinson Online
Official Site devoted to the director.