Talk to Me

Watching Kasi Lemmons' biographical film about Washington, D.C. radio and TV personality Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) is like sitting through two different movies. The first is a raucously funny period comedy detailing how Greene, a cocky ex-con, finagled a gig at a local AM station catering to black listeners in the mid-1960s, adopting a brash on-air persona that turned him into a local celebrity. But Talk to Me takes a sharp dramatic turn with the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., during which Greene exhibited unexpected maturity as the DJ, speaking from the heart about the tragedy and ensuing riots. Afterwards, the station's program director (Chiwetel Ejiofor) becomes Greene's manager and tries to sell the reluctant Greene to a broader audience with standup gigs and his own TV show. The film never quite melds the rambunctious goofiness of the first half with the grimmer tone of the second, in which the script hews too closely to the hoary conventions of a VH1 Behind the Music (or, in this case, microphone) exposé. Fortunately, Talk to Me boasts formidable performances, especially from Cheadle and Ejiofor, as well as an array of colorful supporting players, including Cedric the Entertainer, Martin Sheen, and especially Taraji P. Henson as Greene's flamboyant girlfriend. Talk to Me may be about a specific time, place, and people, but in the end it effectively speaks to us all. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an 11-minute “Recreating P-Town” behind-the-scenes featurette (11 min.), a “Who is Petey Greene?” featurette with interviews from cast and crew (10 min.), nine minutes of deleted scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a solid film.] (F. Swietek)