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Gooood Morning Petey-towwwwn!! A 1960's D.C. Radio Street Poet Talks A
Good Game Without Playing By Its Rules
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "Talk To Me"
By Omar P.L. Moore/July 13, 2007
Don Cheadle as Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, in "Talk To Me", directed by Kasi
Lemmons. The film opened today in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles,
and arrives on August 3 in other U.S. cities. (All photos and movie poster
courtesy of Focus Features)
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Kasi Lemmons directs "Talk To Me" with an unbounded ambition that
makes the film epic in both its emotion and scope even as she looks intimately
at an abiding friendship and brotherhood between Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene and
Dewey Hughes. Greene, superbly played by Don Cheadle (a possible Oscar
nomination here) was a former convict who became Washington, D.C. radio station
WOL-AM's talk radio host and socio-political commentator and entertainer in the
'60's and '70s before becoming D.C.'s most prominent community leader shortly
thereafter in the 1980's, before his untimely death in 1984. Dewey Hughes
(played by the excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor) was WOL's station executive and
programming director and went on to become a decorated television programmer and
multiple-Emmy Award winner.
The film -- which opened today in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles;
August 3 elsewhere in the U.S. -- charts the equally fractious and harmonious
relationship between these two very different men, who in a way were extensions
of each other. Ms. Lemmons crafts what for the first hour-plus is an
uproarious laugh-riot (thanks largely to Mr. Cheadle's shenanigans and
invective) and then for the remaining hour or less gently lets us down from the
magical high notes of this astounding film. If much of the second hour of
"Talk To Me" is slow and stale to some, it's not because it is -- it's because
the director has allowed the audience to contemplate and absorb the meaning of
Mr. Greene to both the community that he served and exhorted, and to Mr. Hughes,
the man whom he often fought and laughed so vigorously with (and lost to in
games of nine-ball pool.) In between the highs and lows are bursts of
effective melodrama, which thanks to the screenplay by Michael Genet (the
real-life son of Dewey Hughes) and Rick Famuyiwa, are not anomalies -- rather,
they fit neatly into the story and zeitgeist of a volatile period in America.
In addition to looking at a relationship between two American black men --
something still not seen very often in the now 21st century, in American films
of any kind -- "Talk To Me" celebrates five other American icons of the
20th century. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Godfather of
Soul James Brown, Motown founder Berry Gordy, the legendary Sidney Poitier and
the inimitable Johnny Carson -- who are all referenced -- sometimes in
affectionate or sorrowful ways, and in several moments, via scathing but playful
intonations. Each of those five legends are not backdrops to the story but
are characters in and of themselves who define and contextualize Mr. Greene's
and Mr. Hughes' places in the American landscape of the 1960's. Ms.
Lemmons also nods at films like "Network" (1976) and its derivative "Bamboozled"
(2000) with the subversion of the radio format by Mr. Greene, who went on to
have a television show entitled "Petey Greene's Washington", which was
syndicated to some 55 million viewers in America via Black Entertainment
Television -- a cable network that right now could use a shot in the arm
from a Petey Greene-like personality. (It bears noting that the first
guest on Mr. Greene's television show of the late 1970's and early 1980's was
Howard Stern, yes, that Howard Stern, an apprentice of sorts to Mr.
Greene. Stern appeared on the show in blackface, much to the anger and
horror of the predominantly black studio audience, whom Mr. Greene calmly
quieted.)
Taraji P. Henson (as Vernell), pictured here with Don Cheadle, adds a charming,
vivacious and campy sexiness to her character in "Talk To Me".
Don Cheadle continues his ascendancy as an A-list actor with
remarkable acting range. As Petey Greene he electrifies, offering the same
intensity and energy to this charismatic and uncontained figure as he did to his
explosive Mouse character in his debut in "Devil In A Blue Dress" a decade or so
ago alongside Denzel Washington in Carl Franklin's film. Mr. Cheadle's
skills as a highly-proficient actor certify him as a stupendous chameleon on the
big screen, with roles as diverse as Mouse, as Buck Swope ("Boogie Nights"), as
real-life hotelier Paul Rusesabagina ("Hotel Rwanda"), as Basher Tarr (in the
"Ocean's" films) and as Alan Johnson in this year's hugely underrated "Reign
Over Me". Mr. Cheadle's skills continue to take him to places that make
the characters he plays so very vivid, compelling, intelligent, urgent,
passionate and infinitely larger than the cinematic endeavors in which they are
showcased. Mr. Ejiofor's performance as Dewey Hughes is also an example of
an actor whose confidence is matched only by his brilliance. Mr. Ejiofor,
born in Britain to Nigerian parents, has swiftly risen through the ranks.
He had a showy turn as the wildly flamboyant character in the independent film
comedy "Kinky Boots" last year, as well as a role in Spike Lee's "Inside Man" in
the same year, opposite Denzel Washington. Mr. Ejiofor (who also appeared
in "Children Of Men" in 2006), will be next seen with Mr. Washington in
November's "American Gangster". Mr. Ejiofor was magnetic and compassionate
in "Dirty Pretty Things" (2002), his first lead feature film role and hasn't
looked back ever since. (He also appeared in Steven Spielberg's "Amistad"
ten years ago.)
Like the real-life Mr. Greene, who lived for 53 short years, the political
elements in Ms. Lemmons' film are not sold cheap. We hear truth being
spoken to power, see the burning streets, the anti-war protests, the untruths
spoken by those in the grandest corridors of American leadership, and the
activism of a man whose later roots as a community leader are sown and shown in
one funny sequence where Mr. Greene as played by Mr. Cheadle wears the attire of
the Black Panthers, complete with black beret. Unlike the galvanizing "Dreamgirls",
in Ms. Lemmons' film the scenes of civil unrest and response to injustices
perpetrated by white police officers upon American citizens who are black, have
a meaning that connects within the story, due to Mr. Greene's riveting, incisive
and pertinent social commentary, and the music (by Mavis Staples, Sam Cooke,
James Brown, Sly And The Family Stone, to name a few) which pulsates throughout
"Talk To Me". Terence Blanchard's few bars of music score in about five
places in this film lend a discreet and moving harmony to the uplifting,
self-determination-exhorted soul sounds of America. Mr. Greene appears to
be a contemporary of Gil Scott Heron, the famous political poet, griot (and
rapper) of the 1960's, with his seminal and popular "The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised" spoken word piece. While watching "Talk To Me" it is easy to
think that Mr. Greene and Mr. Heron are close cousins -- and they were, at least
in the figurative sense, cousins of the Black Power movement in America.
Speaking of black -- Black women are shown as affectionate and lovingly as they
are boldly and brashly. Taraji P. Henson (she of "Smokin' Aces" and
"Hustle & Flow") provides charm, allure, extravagance, intelligence and sex
appeal as Vernell, Greene's on-and-off girlfriend. It is refreshing to see
black women have the scope, dynamism and dimension that Ms. Lemmons -- one of
the few prominent black women directing feature films in America today -- gives
them. Here, Vernell isn't some singing sensation who has been hard done by
-- she's a passionate, eloquent, breathless, vivacious and flamboyant figure
with love, advice and comfort to give. (On a trivial note, Ms. Henson's
Vernell wears Afros that Angela Davis and Diana Ross would be proud -- at least
to a point, perhaps.) On a negative note, "Talk To Me", to its detriment,
revels in its characters' excessive use of the N-word, but defenders of such
language will say that Petey Greene and Dewey Hughes spoke like this with each
other and that was merely reflected in the film. Be that as it may, it is
interesting (and telling) to note among a racially-mixed movie-going audience
(particularly one consisting of blacks and whites) the aural fluctuation and
distribution of laughs at moments when that dreaded word is uttered throughout
the film.
Brothers, partners, fighters, friends - d'accord? Don Cheadle and Chiwetel
Ejiofor reach an accord during Kasi Lemmons' "Talk To Me".
The Nighthawk in the Daylight: Cedric The Entertainer in a cameo as WOL radio
personality "Nighthawk" Bob Terry, the man with THE VOICE, in "Talk To Me", the
poster of which is adjacent.
"Talk To Me" is "inspired by a true story" and that tag gives the
film's writers license to depict a scene early on which has been hotly contested
in some circles, in which a prisoner is talked down from committing suicide by
Mr. Cheadle's character. Regardless of whether the event occurred or not,
the script uses it to again develop the leadership, persuasiveness and appeal
that Petey Greene had among the people who identified with him and his message,
and puts a cherry on top of a delicious celluloid cake with a very funny punch
line from Mr. Cheadle. The film, whose essential story revolves around the
flagging WOL and its manager and chief executive E.D. Sonderling's (Martin
Sheen) enduring patience (and conniptions) with Mr. Greene and Mr. Hughes, also
features the supplementary performances of Mike Epps, as Milo Hughes, Dewey's
brother; Cedric The Entertainer as the radio station's nighttime personality
Nighthawk, a deejay whose Barry White-like voice is as seductive as the music he
serenades his lady listeners with over the air; and by Vondie Curtis Hall as
Sunny Jim Mindel, the morning host on WOL who gets hoodwinked more than once.
Mr. Hall, a film director in his own right with such films as "Grid'lock'd"
(with Tim Roth, Tupac Shakur and Thandie Newton), is also the husband of Kasi
Lemmons.
As an aside, during the film a white viewer in the theater audience, who later
looked to be in his mid-to-late fifties, loudly whispered to his friend sitting
adjacent to him, "who's Berry Gordy?" "Talk To Me" may not (or may) appeal
to persons of any race who has no knowledge of, or haven't at least heard
of Mr. Gordy (the man who asked the question seemed unmoved in any way by any of
the film's moments of fun and hilarity -- unlike his friend), but there's no
denying that the film makes for a highly entertaining and crowd-pleasing
experience.
"Talk To Me", one of the summer's best, speaks loudly, lovingly and defiantly in
every way. Ms. Lemmons (along with cinematographer Stephane Fontaine) has
engineered a moving, electrifying, sexy and beautiful visual musical poem which
is passionate and engaging. Most profoundly of all perhaps, the film is a
sad reminder of how very little incisive and intelligent talk radio exists in
America today, and of those who are speaking truth to power, very few are having
the effect today that Petey Greene had in his day beyond the airwaves.
"Talk To Me" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
pervasive language and some sexual content. The film's story is by Michael
Genet, who also wrote the screenplay with Rick Famuyiwa. Don Cheadle
serves as one of the film's executive producers. The film's duration is
one hour and 58 minutes. "Talk To Me" opened today in New York, San
Francisco and Los Angeles, and will open in other American cities on August 3.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007.
All Rights Reserved.
Related:
Director
Kasi Lemmons Talks To The Popcorn Reel (feature story)