"Liberty Heights" is no match for "Diner"
but I enjoyed the humor about Jewish-Wasp-Black relationships in
post-Brown v. Topeka Baltimore. Joe Mantegna turns in his usual
fine performance as a Jewish numbers racket-burlesque
entrepreneur father of two teenage boys one of whom falls for the
first black girl in his newly integrated school and the other for
a rich wasp queen from Virginia. Meanwhile Mantegna runs into big
trouble when he integrates his numbers business with a local
black hood who unbeknownst to Mantegna also deals dope. At times
the movie isn't very convincing but it is quick paced and quite
funny and unsentimental.
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