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Liberty Heights | 1999 | R | - 6.2.6
The fourth film in Barry Levinson's coming-of-age series set in 1950s Baltimore follows two Jewish brothers (Adrien Brody and Ben Foster) who experience anti-Semitism and fall for "forbidden" girls: a WASP debutante and an African-American. Also with Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, Rebekah Johnson, David Krumholtz, Richard Kline, Vincent Guastaferro, Justin Chambers, Carolyn Murphy, James Pickens Jr., Anthony Anderson, Frania Rubinek and Kiersten Warren. [2:07]
SEX/NUDITY 6 - Lots of sexual innuendo, including a reference to fellatio and discussions of human and animal penis sizes. Some kisses; we see a couple kissing passionately in a car and briefly see a boy and girl kissing passionately on a bed. We see a wet spot on the crotch of a boy's pants, implying that he ejaculated when a girl briefly touched his leg. While a boy is sitting on the floor of a car, he stares at a girl's bare legs and sees part of her slip. In several scenes taking place in a burlesque theater, we see scantily clad women dance suggestively and begin stripping; in two scenes we briefly see a woman's bare buttocks and in another we see a topless woman with tassels on her breasts. Outside a burlesque theater we see posters of scantily clad women.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - A scuffle and a fistfight with several punches in the stomach and face. Men yell and need to be restrained from hitting each other. Reckless driving; we see a boy drive his car through a garage door (he gets a very small bloody facial cut). A boy with a bruised, cut face and bandages on his arm is seen in a hospital bed. Two instances of threatening with guns. We hear a girl vomit.
LANGUAGE 6 - About 3 F-words, lots of anatomical references and slang terms, lots of scatological references, lots of mild obscenities, some insults and several racial epithets.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Being Jewish, anti-Semitism, racism, discovering one's sexuality, discovering people and ideas outside of your "world," falling in love, gambling rackets, burlesque shows, abduction, courage.
MESSAGE - Your youth is a memorable time marked by discovery, curiosity, disappointment, hope and innocence lost.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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