Avalon

The third of director Barry Levinson's autobiographical "Baltimore Trilogy" (the first two entries were Diner and Tin Men), Avalon covers nearly forty years in the lives of an immigrant Jewish family. Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) emigrates to Baltimore in 1914, where Sam's brothers Gabriel ...more

Barry Levinson's sentimental family saga is an engaging and affecting film, particularly in its sense of comic detail, but is less persuasive in its overall design. The film covers half a century in the life of the Krichinsky's, a family of Russian immigrants, from their arrival in Baltimore in 1914. Levinson, who began his life in show business and a stand-up comic before becoming a comedy writer, and eventually a director, reminds one of the kind of genial uncle who dissolves tense moments at ...more