Talk to Me (2007)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's May 1966. Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works programming at WOL-AM in Washington DC. During his visit with his brother in prison, he meets outrageous Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) who cajoles a promise to see him after he gets out. Petey gets out much sooner than expected. The station is losing ground to the competition but manager E.G. Sonderling (Martin Sheen) still won't let the street hustler Greene on the air. Dewey and Petey lock themselves in the booth and end up becoming the legendary media personality. Taraji P. Henson plays Petey's wild girlfriend Vernell Watson. Cedric the Entertainer plays another radio personality Nighthawk Bob Terry.It's a pretty straight biopic from Kasi Lemmons. I don't think Martin Sheen fits his character. He needs to be more straight laced and conservative. Cheadle and Ejiofor are terrific. Don Cheadle energizes the whole movie. It is without a doubt his movie and he owns it. Ejiofor is there every step of the way. He is just as powerful to counter Cheadle. Taraji P. Henson needs an honorable mention for her great work. The movie does fade in the last act as it loses the energy of Petey Greene. It may be a better option to follow Petey rather than Dewey.

I picked up the DVD yesterday in the bargain bin of Big Lots for $1.50. It was the cheapest movie in the bin, but I knew I would never get a chance to see it otherwise. I lived in DC after Green died, and knew little about him. This movie is also an important history for those of us who love/hate the city.As you can see from previous reviews, many of us are convinced this is an excellent movie. I expected great acting from Don Cheadle, but I was most impressed with how tight the whole movie was - great writing by Michael Genet and Rick Famuyiwa, terrific directing by the very talented Kasi Lemmons, excellent ensemble acting especially between Cheadle, Eliofor and Tanaji P. Henson (who steals a few scenes herself). And the music, if you love old school, this is it!Of course, the movie is about race and class, but I think we need to go beyond the film's subject and ask, Why is this excellent movie by African Americans so marginalized in our cinema industry?

Talk to Me strikes a reflective chord for much of it's 2 hours and especially towards it's end. It features a run through of the middle lives of 2 radio announcers in Washington DC. The clowning and camaraderie is on display early on, and surely the movie's best energy is during it's first 2/3 of the runtime. Towards the last 20 min or so there's a winding down that's noticeable. Nonetheless Cheadle and Ejiofor are sort of like a ying/yang type relationship as Petey Green and Dewey Hughes. The Cheadle character has been in trouble with the law and street smart, while Ejiofor's has worked hard while clean and also being street smart. This was an interesting sort of a bio/docu-drama outlining the two's friendship from early on spanning 2 decades around the Civil Rights era and later. Good acting amid some slower pacing worth the watch.

I had no idea what this film was about, and, not having been born until 1962, I had no idea who Petey Greene was or what he was about, but if Don Cheadle captured the essence of the man, he did a heck of a job! Here's what I got out of this film: First and foremost, Greene was a man who was NOT afraid to speak his mind. The second thing is that he was a person who had his finger on the pulse of the people. The last thing that stood out was that he was someone who wasn't afraid to go after what he wanted...not just the job, but even when he went on the air after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and asked for prayers from the people of Washington, D.C., not bloodshed and riots.The last part of this film that got my attention was the relationship between Petey (Cheadle) and Dewey Hughes (Chwetel Ejiofoir), which I felt that this film was angled at from time to time. It drifted towards the end from one to the other and more about Dewey and his rise than about Petey's fall.As a film buff, this one had my attention from the second the first frame started, and as something of the historical side, I'm not sure how accurate it was, but I can only hope that the real Petey Greene was as captivating as this film was.