Review of Liberty Heights (1999) by Allegra F — 14 Feb 2010

Yeah...I found it kind of unmemorable and a time-waster in all honesty. A lot of the acting was horrible, sans Adrien Brody, Ben Foster sometimes, and Fat Tony. It was way too long, and it's story was kind of blah to me, especially Adrien Brody's part of it.

Also, the conversations between Ben Foster and his "negro" (I HATE that term) friend were so painstakingly awful and (I'd think) unrealistic that it just got too much to bear. Also, their ending would have been sweet if their parents had actually learned something.

The black people were just as racist as the white people, if their parents were any indication. Like, seriously: "Mr. [insert Ben's last name here], you need to leave my house now because you are white and my daughter is black and I hate white people because they hate black people.

" That was practically what one scene of the movie was saying. It all just felt completely pointless in the end...and I mean, some parts were funny, sure, the parts with Adrien Brody and his Jewish friends, but was this supposed to really be a comedy like my cable said? And why was it so important that they were Jewish? Was it just because there were a lot of Jews living in Baltimore at the time? I didn't think their Jewishness needed to be so showcased, because it ended up not being that important.

I mean, it was an element of the story, that's true...but I feel like the tensions between the Jews and the non-Jews added very little to the story. The stronger story as I said before was Ben's.

Too bad his interracial friendship never really went too far beyond "Oh, so this is what black people like! You see, I'm not a black person. How interesting. You black people are so different.

" I find it strange that this movie was lauded so much when I found it to be bland, rather uninteresting, and pretty silent when it comes to espousing a message. What am I missing? EDIT: Oh, and this movie was especially fun to watch on WB at 1 PM.

the scene with Orlando Jones and Ben and "Sylvia" in the car was hilarious. "Touch her cookie" was how they edited it. He kept saying "Touch it. Touch her cookie." It killed me.