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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Talk to Me
Focus Features
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FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language and some sexual content
Starring
Don Cheadle,
Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Mike Epps,
Martin Sheen,
Cedric the Entertainer,
and
Vondie Curtis-Hall
In the mid-to-late 1960's, in Washington, D.C., vibrant soul music and exploding social consciousness were combining to unique and powerful effect. It was the place and time for Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr. to fully express himself - sometimes to outrageous effect - and "tell it like it is." With the support of his irrepressible and tempestuous girlfriend Vernell, the newly minted ex-con talks his way into an on-air radio gig. At the station, Petey becomes an iconic radio personality, surpassing even the established popularity of his fellow disc jockeys, Nighthawk and Sunny Jim. Combining biting humor with social commentary, Petey was determined to make not just himself but his community heard during an exciting and turbulent period in Amercian History. Based on the true story. (Focus Features)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
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| WRITTEN BY: |
Michael Genet (& story)
Rick Famuyiwa
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| DIRECTED BY: |
Kasi Lemmons
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| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 30, 2007
Theatrical: July 13, 2007
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| RUNNING TIME: |
118 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
A rowdy, richly offbeat biopic.
88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Talk to Me has a great subject and a great actor working in tandem, reminding audiences that once upon a time media personalities used to fight The Man, not be The Man.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Someone like Petey Greene made a difference and made a mark, and broadcasting is better because of his transparent honesty. He helped transform African-American stations more, probably, than their mostly white owners desired. And talk talents like Howard Stern, whether they know who he was, owe him something.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
As Greene, Don Cheadle - explosive because you've never before seen this model of actorly restraint - is a one-man fireworks show in Talk to Me, Kasi Lemmons' rollicking, resonant portrait of the real-life ex-con who improbably became a civic icon.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
No matter what character Don Cheadle has played in his 23-year career, he's always seemed to be holding something back...Until Talk to Me.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Gianni Truzzi
Hughes' push for Greene to succeed confronts the nettlesome issues of racial identity that most films vigorously avoid. The worthiness of Talk to Me will be proved if it gets us talking to each other.
83
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Once Greene achieves fame, neither he nor the screenplay quite knows what to do; the first half-hour of Talk to Me is the most fun. But a vibrant feel for its era and a genuine affection for its characters make the whole thing a solid evocation of a time and a life worth remembering.
83
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Kasi Lemmons' movie is called Talk to Me, but what it really does is sing to you, in the argot and cadences of soul, jazz, rock and rhythm and blues.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
While Cheadle's fearlessly robust performance absolutely galvanizes Talk to Me, it's not the only thing that makes Kasi Lemmons' third feature such a pleasure to take in.
80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The result is a movie that offers uplift without phoniness, history without undue didacticism and a fair number of funny, dirty jokes.
80
Newsweek
David Ansen
A vital entertainment that struts confidently between comedy and drama.
80
Time
Richard Schickel
Eventually you may come to think of Talk to Me as a true movie rarity -- a very honest yet curiously affecting experience.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Talk to Me speaks powerfully to audiences with its potent blend of extraordinary performances and engaging soundtrack.
75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Talk to Me is a welcome reminder of a time when radio truly listened to the people instead of just shouted at them.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Especially wonderful is Taraji P. Henson as Petey's longtime girlfriend Vernell , a vision in Foxy Brown period clothes with a pixie smile, lollipop legs, and a filthy mouth. After "Hustle & Flow ," this is at least the second movie Henson has stolen, and will Hollywood please do something about it?
75
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Cheadle and Ejiofor are riveting together; they have the kind of apparently effortless chemistry that makes every scene they share a delight. With a dynamite soundtrack under their feet, the two of them rock the house.
70
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Talk to Me, with two great actors, tells that story, and it makes you feel not only the joy people experienced in the wash of Greene's raucous, truth-saying humor, but also his wisdom and calm. And many mourned his death at 55 in 1984.
70
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
With its R&B soundtrack and footage of civil unrest, Talk to Me might seem to cover familiar ground. But as an intimate portrait of the complex, fruitful and extremely volatile friendship between trailblazing African American men whose daring came to redefine an industry, it's fresh and revelatory.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
An imperfect picture that's alive every minute, a movie that perfectly captures the vibe of a person, a place, a time and a way of being, and even gets, indirectly and without a whiff of sanctimoniousness, to the heart of what being an American ought to mean.
70
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
A poignant reminder of why people used to actually listen to their radios.
67
Austin Chronicle
Toddy Burton
From James Brown to Sam Cooke, the songs set a mood that lingers for some time after.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The problem is, the last section of the movie doesn't follow the career path of Greene: It traces the blander character of Hughes. Cheadle, who galvanizes the first half of the film, fades from view, and the best part of the conversation in Talk to Me goes with him.
63
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Despite being abandoned in the late going by his director, Cheadle gives one of the year's most fully realized performances, and Henson is a revelation.
63
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Don Cheadle has a fine time jiving through Talk to Me - accent, please, on the middle word. It's a black "Good Morning, Vietnam."
60
Variety
Robert Koehler
Alternates too deliberately between jaunty comedy and serious message-making.
60
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
The movie always teeters on the verge of something deeper, and Cheadle’s rendering of Greene’s stubborn refusal to be domesticated is funny, exhilarating and then quietly tragic. But Lemmons keeps pulling back into jive-talking shtick, and for much of the time -- I felt as though someone had trapped me in a time-warped episode of "The Jeffersons."
60
Empire
Helen O'Hara
There’s terrific chemistry between the leads, but an episodic structure set over 20 years is too sprawling to really allow for a connection.
58
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Unfortunately, that story isn't particularly well told, and after a while, the strength of the two leads' work and the popping soundtrack can't hide the fact that Lemmons doesn't really have much to say about the material.
58
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Whatever brought Greene down was far more complex than this film allows for.
50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The early scenes of Greene misbehaving on the air are pretty funny, thanks mainly to Martin Sheen as the apoplectic station manager. But I was bummed out by the movie's trite VH1 cartoon of the black power era--especially coming from Kasi Lemmons, who made her directing debut with the hauntingly ambiguous "Eve's Bayou."
50
Village Voice
Nathan Lee
The banality of Talk To Me is only half disappointing; at least it babbles clichés with conviction.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
A potentially great movie winds up buried inside a just OK one.
50
Wall Street Journal
Joanne Kaufman
For a movie that celebrates the power of speech, Talk to Me is oddly tongue tied. Its dialogue, equal parts uptight honky and jumping jive seems, particularly in the early stretches, to have been generated by a computer.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
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