Liberty Heights

The fourth and last film in Barry Levinson's Baltimore series, after Diner, Tin Men and Avalon. It is set in Baltimore in 1954, immediately after the Brown decision ended school segregation. The Kurtzmans are Jewish and live in Forest Park in the northwest of the city. Three strands run in parallel. Ben, in his final year of high school, becomes friends with Sylvia, a Black girl who arrives at his school once the district is integrated. His older brother Van is at university and drifts toward the wealthy white set. Their father Nate runs a burlesque theatre and is mixed up in a numbers racket, so the family income is itself a crossed line. The real subject is how many invisible borders one neighbourhood contains: the Jewish, Black and wealthy white circles all know about each other and none of them can cross into another. Levinson presents this not as drama but as everyday oddity. Adrien Brody plays Van, Ben Foster the younger brother and Joe Mantegna the father. Who it is for: viewers who like period texture, observation of class and generation, and an unhurried telling. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a dense story. None of the three strands fully connects, the film is episodic, and some sections are left unfinished.