Liberty Heights

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Liberty Heights ★★½ 1999 (R)

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. 127m/C VHS, DVD . 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 Jr., Anthony Anderson, Kiersten Warren; D: Barry Levinson; W: Barry Levin son; C: Christopher Doyle; M: Andrea Morricone.