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100Levinson is so skillful at developing personalities, even among the story's would-be villains, that by the halfway point of the movie, every gesture and expression has unexpected depth and texture. The performances are across-the-board superb.
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90Levinson is at the top of his game with Liberty Heights, his instincts acutely cinematic, his purpose clear.
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90A mature, accomplished piece of work, both funny and deeply felt, personal cinema of the best kind...Levinson has made the memory film we always hoped he would.
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90A languorous, funny and lovingly detailed memory film.
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90Seems to encompass all the humor, sadness and weirdness of ordinary life in an utterly winning, morally acute way.
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90Barry Levinson goes deep with Liberty Heights, and the result is a grand slam.
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90Demonstrates what writer-director Levinson does best: evoke the sights, smells and atmosphere of his youth with intelligence, humor and a keen sense of social perspective.
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88Emerges as an accurate memory of that time when the American melting pot, splendid as a theory, became a reality.
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88Easily one of the year's best movies.
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88Well worth the wait.
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85A uniquely personal, vibrant mosaic of the American dream, and like a dream, it evaporates beautifully before our eyes.
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80Buoyant with quiet smiles and unpretentious fondness.
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80A disarmingly funny, clear-eyed, and affectionate memory piece.
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78Minus much of the rose-tinted nostalgia his films have occasionally engendered. There is a nostalgic tone to the film, but it's a quiet, subtle one.
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Few mainstream films portray the religiousness or ethnicity of characters with such detail, warmth and humor as Liberty Heights.
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75Filmed in a quietly impressionistic style and splendidly acted by a well-chosen cast, the movie would be a top-of-the-line entertainment if its delicately balanced perspective weren't marred by a few moments of racially insensitive excess.
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75This is a small, intimate movie bound to get lost in the holiday shuffle, but its pleasures are worth seeking out.
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75Has integrity, but the way he bends his tale to make a statement is overly deliberate.
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75Just a good time at the movies, but it's still a smarter two hours than most "good times" are.
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75Both a lovingly crafted remembrance of things past and a deliberate broadening and darkening of the canvas Levinson previously filled in "Diner," "Tin Men," and "Avalon."
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75As good as the film is in so many ways, it also altogether rings a bit false and contrived.
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70Levinson brings it all back home to Baltimore and delivers his funniest and most heartfelt film since "Diner."
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70If Liberty Heights is much too soft at its center, it still offers a deeper immersion in that old '50s feeling than any other Hollywood film in recent memory.
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67But Levinson's passion to explain how he got from there to ''Sphere'' gives Liberty Heights its own farkatke Hollywood integrity.
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As pleasant and rosy and optimistic as it is, Liberty Heights doesn't really soar, emotionally or otherwise.
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60I could have done more with the edgy humor of "Diner" and "Tin Men" and less of the mythmaking of "Avalon."
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60Far from perfect, and at 122 minutes it's way too long, but after surviving an overly schematic and even hectoring first half, finally delivers the emotional goods.
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50A lot here is genially entertaining, but it doesn't make for interesting or vital filmmaking, because while Levinson might honestly prefer rye, he makes movies the way Wonder Bread bakes.
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50I think Levinson missed a chance to get something unique and audacious on screen.
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45This may be what life was like for Levinson back in the day, but it makes a boring movie for the rest of us.
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40Told from too many perspectives, the narrative puts suspense above substance, and its social consciousness seems contrived.
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