Liberty Heights (1999)

The 1950s were a more innocent time, yet the tensions that would explode in the following decade were beginning to simmer. Director Barry Levinson, who has made a number of autobiographical films about growing up in his native Baltimore, calls on his memories of his adolescence during this period. His 14-year-old alter ego Ben (Ben Foster) combines both his growing interest in girls and an increasing awareness of racial exclusion after he becoming attracted to Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson), a black girl in his school. Levinson is less interested in exploring any single relationship than in tracing the boy's first steps out of the family enclave he's known into a wider, more diverse world -- both fascinating, and, at times, threatening. There's also a fanciful Runyon-esque subplot involving Ben's father's (Joe Mantegna) mysteriously shady occupation. That story line is the only weak link in an otherwise absorbing film. The acting is uniformly excellent, with outstanding work by Foster, a brilliant turn by Orlando Jones as Little Melvin, and an especially memorable scene from James Pickens Jr. as Sylvia's father. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide