scottmontreal 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?

Roland E. Zwick Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene was only a few months out of prison when, in 1966, he finagled his way into a job as D.J. at WOR, the premier soul station in the Washington D. C. area. With his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric and fired-up delivery, Petey quickly became known as a "truth teller" and the "voice of the people" for the station's predominantly black listening audience. It wasn't long before he was branching out into other areas of the entertainment industry including television and stand-up comedy.For about the first hour or so, "Talk to Me," directed by Kasi Lemmons, feels like a subdued and considerably lesser version of the far more animated "Private Parts," but then, at about the midway point, the movie hits its stride with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and Greene's on-air efforts to bring order to a city rent by anger and civil strife. In many ways, Greene's need to always be true to himself and what he stood for prevented him from ever achieving true mainstream popularity, mainly because he refused to play by the rules set down by the middle-brow entertainment establishment (his abortive - nay disastrous - appearance on The Tonight Show is a highlight of the movie).The ever impressive Don Cheadle slides effortlessly into the role of Greene, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is equally effective as Dewey Hughes, the man who gets Greene his first gig at the station. It is their tumultuous and complex relationship - which often deals with the issue of just how "assimilationist" blacks were supposed to be at that time - that becomes the galvanizing force of the movie.The temper of the era - spanning from 1966 to Greene's untimely death from liver cancer in 1984 - is effectively conveyed through a canny combination of newsreel footage and re-creations of key events of the time.

Neil Turner I remember many of my experiences in the late 60's and 70's as sort of an over-the-top caricature of real life, and, basically, I find that a pretty valid description of Talk to Me. Just as my memories of those times are glossed over by fond and crazy memories so is this film, but that didn't keep me from really enjoying it.The film was advertised as a biopic of Washington, D.C., radio and television talk-show personality, Petey Greene. He grew up on the mean streets of D.C. and was eventually sent to prison. Greene was a master hustler and larger than life personality - the perfect persona for a talk-show host. During his time in prison, he gained experience as an incarcerated DJ and used that experience to break into radio talk after his release. He became a noted figure of social consciousness in D.C. during those turbulent times of civil unrest in the quest for civil rights for the everyday African American man and woman. He accomplished a great deal in his fifty-three years but was always haunted by demons of his past and his additions to drugs and alcohol.Don Cheadle is a joy to watch as Petey. He is an excellent actor and gives us a delightful taste of a man strutting through his world as a larger-than-life character all the while trying to suppress his deep feelings of insecurity.In reality, the film is actually more of a biography of Dewey Hughes who started working in lowly jobs in a D.C. radio station and went on to become a mover and shaker in both radio and television.Hughes is played by British actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and he does an amazing job at capturing the accent of the two sides of his character. In the film, Hughes is depicted as a Black man raised in poverty who has accomplished a great deal - extremely proper speech being one. During most of the film, Ejiofor speaks in that tongue, but there are times when his character expresses himself in a very believable way using the language of the streets - all of this from an actor with a British accent.Cheadle and Ejiofor give us an engrossing look at two talented men who spend most of their time at odds with one another all the while covering respect, envy, and love. Even though their relationship in the film is highly romanticized, it is still good, solid entertainment.Not to demean the excellent acting all around, it is the production that makes this film a great indulgence - especially for me. Most of it takes place during the 70's which was both a tragic and totally wacky decade of American history. This film is filled with great costumes and scenes that will bring bitter-sweet memories to anyone of my generation. It's a great treat.

DICK STEEL Don Cheadle's star is probably burning a little bit brighter now since the blockbuster hit of this summer's Iron Man had announced that he will take over Terrence Howard's role as Jim Rhodes given the latter being unable to agree on contractual terms with the studios. While Cheadle might be more familiar to audiences here as one of Ocean's 11 to 13, it was in Hotel Rwanda that made me sit up and take notice, playing a man caught in a genocide, having to protect his family, his friends, and his job all at once.In Talk To Me, Cheadle disappears into the role of real life Washington DC's finest on the radio, Petey Greene, who tells it like it is, without mincing his words, and in doing so, garners a huge following in the city, with this film directed by Kasi Lemmons spanning the 60s to the 80s. Cheadle gives a solid performance as the DJ, an ex-convict whose common man background strikes a chord with his listeners, and this film chronicles his rise to stardom and eventual fade out from the limelight.Sharing the limelight is Chiwetel Ejiofor as partner Dewey Hughes (quite hard to imagine that Ejiofor was once Lola in Kinky Boots), credited for giving Petey his big break into radio outside of the prison walls because of his needing a fresh voice and perspective to be at the helm of his radio station's morning show, which is suffering from plummeting listenership. And as they say, the rest is history. The bulk of the film centers on the friendship between these two personalities, with Hughes at the mid point, in seeing the potential to be milked from Greene to ascend far beyond the airwaves, convincing Greene to allow him to manage his career, therefore bringing about new opportunities from stage to screen.Set against the tumultuous backdrop of that era's US history, the primary theme in the movie though, was on something that you'd probably be able to identify with yourself. It is important to do things that you enjoy doing, rather than be forced to do something that you're unwilling, or unhappy about, despite reaping the rewards gained, be it for fame or money. As the movie goes along and as Greene's fame gets more widespread, there is something in his eye and response that he's not all too comfortable in being put under the spotlight all the time, and Cheadle brings out this subtleness with great excellence. I think some of us from time to time might have experienced how while you're good at something and are comfortable to remain in your own turf, that others who recognize your talent, might want to push you out of your comfort zone. If you think of it positively, it's opportunity to be gained, especially when you swim. If you sink however, then your confidence might be taken a hit, and it depends on your strength in character to be able to bounce back from defeat.Fans of soul music will have plenty to cheer as the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing given that it's set in a radio station for the most part. Wonderful performances all round and having a compelling story to tell, Talk To Me certainly is one of the gems this year that shouldn't be missed.