Talk to Me.

"A rather standard and unexceptional what-comes-up-must-come-down narrative arc is the blueprint for Talk to Me, the story of controversial DC deejay Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green Jr (Don Cheadle), who ignited the capitol's airwaves with his blunt straight-shooting during the tumultuous mid-to-late 60s, and then fell into alcohol abuse and disrepute before his untimely death in 1982," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

"Textured by ego trips, boozing, red velvet tuxedos, and a soundtrack jammed with rousing, if predictable hits of the era, Talk To Me lacks every kind of specificity (historical, psychological, socio-cultural) but redeems itself through the dedication of its Cheadlicious lead," writes Nathan Lee in the Voice.

Updated through 7/17.

For the New York Times, Sharon Waxman talks with Kasi Lemmons about why, after initial reticence, she felt compelled to make this film: "One of the things that happened was the Iraq war. We were invading. People had strong opinions, and they were afraid to say anything. There was fear, you could feel it. People were afraid. I was. So I was attracted to a character who spoke loudly, without censoring, who let the chips fall where they would. There was something about a loud, uncensored, brave voice that attracted me."

At the Reeler, ST VanAirsdale talks with Cheadle. And Susan King talks with Taraji P Henson for the Los Angeles Times.

Updates, 7/11: "Like most big-time movie directors, Kasi Lemmons had a studio driver to take her to and from the set of her new film, Talk to Me. So driver and passenger did some chatting, and one of the their conversations stuck in her mind. 'He said he'd driven 130 directors,' Lemmons recalled. 'And I was the first woman director he'd driven.'" So begins Mary F Pols's piece for the Contra Costa Times, "They're Women, Directors and Few." A reminder: Women represent a mere 7 percent of all directors working in film. Via Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay.

"Cheadle is absolutely magnetic as Greene, particularly when he's loosed on the airwaves of 'P-Town,' mixing it up with his listeners or bashing targets like Berry Gordy and President Nixon. He's Howard Stern, if Howard Stern were more political and dressed like Superfly," writes Matt Singer at IFC News. That said, "In its second half, the movie is far too focused on cramming in every important event in Greene's life. This is narrative suicide."

"Talk to Me should generate awards talk for Cheadle, Ejiofor and the very talanted Taraji P Henson," writes Bryan Whitefield at ScreenGrab. "It's easily one of the best American movies I've seen this year."

Updates, 7/12: "I'd hoped to send only good thoughts the way of Kasi Lemmons' biopic of Washington disc jockey Ralph Waldo ('Petey') Greene Jr, if only because it tries to snatch shock-jockery back from the right and reclaim it for the populist black left," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly. "The visual daring that showed off Lemmons' first feature, Eve's Bayou, translates here into a rousing, kinetic mounting of the downtown 60s DC scene that Greene helped create.... Neither Lemmons nor screenwriters Michael Genet and Rick Famuyiwa, however, have much of a feel for character, let alone story."

"Taking a nostalgic view of that period and its styles, director Kasi Lemmons attempts to re-animate stereotypes; she misreads the music, clothes, afros and attitude as the essence of Petey, his woman Vernell (Taraji P Henson) and Dewey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the radio exec who put him on the air," writes Armond White in the New York Press, where Jennifer Merin talks with Lemmons.

Online listening tip. Lemmons is a guest on The Treatment.

Updates, 7/13: "Presidents come and go, as do parties, issues, wars, crises, hostesses and even movie critics, but for the longest time, one thing in Washington was solid as the pillars at Treasury: This was Petey Greene's town," writes Stephen Hunter in the Post. Talk to Me "makes you feel the joy people experienced in the wash of his raucous, truth-saying humor (for a sample, check out 'How to Eat Watermelon' on YouTube), but also his wisdom and his calm.... Petey died young, cut down by cancer, his work started, not finished. The movie is a tribute to a truth, however: Talent and guts can get you farther than you think, and you don't even have to sell out to make it."

Salon's Stephanie Zacharek finds Talk to Me to be "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."

"Talk to Me starts out broad and schematic only to surprise you with its subtlety as it unfolds," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "Conveying the passage of time through the usual shorthand of clothes, hairstyles and vintage pop music, the movie nonetheless steers clear of the usual biopic conventions.... 'You say the things I'm afraid to say,' Dewey remarks, 'and I do the things you're afraid to do.' While Petey brushes this off as greeting-card hooey, Talk to Me explores the idea of their symbiosis in a nuanced and insightful manner."

In the Los Angeles Times, Carina Chocano notes that the film "observes the fervor of a bygone activist culture longingly, as if to ask, what's with everybody now?... Part of what drew Lemmons to her subject was the contrast between Greene's uncensored candor, emblematic of the era, and the mealy mouthed timidity of today, so you don't begrudge her the occasional image mash-up, hammy though they sometimes are, or even the way she drives the message home at the movie and then walks it to the door."

"Lemmons generates energy around her story and rapport between her leads, though uneven period details (was use of the 'n-word' among blacks really so liberal in 1966 - or 'oh, hell no,' for that matter?) distract here and there," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler. "It's not until the first blaring 'biopic moment' - on the air without permission, Greene is on the brink of being tossed out of the studio, until the phone lines light up, you know, like a Christmas tree - that you realize you've actually signed on for a Profile in Courage. All right, that's overstating it. But the sense of a machine taking over, albeit a very well-oiled one, threatens to overshadow two very strong performances."

"The movie begins with a whirlpool of comedy and manic energy, and then grows, as it must, more serious and introspective," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Cheadle, that superb actor, embodies the complexities of Petey Greene in a performance that goes from high through second into low (that's harder and more interesting than the usual shifting)."

"Viewers should be excused a sense of déjà vu when the film hits its rise-to-fame montage set to period music," writes Keith Phipps at the AV Club. "Fortunately, Talk to Me has a pair of assured performances to keep it grounded."

Peter Smith talks with Lemmon for Nerve.

"By failing to fulfill our generic expectations, by letting its protagonist sink back into local hero status it cheats us of the good feelings we have come to expect from movies about show biz paragons," writes Richard Schickel for Time. "It's only later, as you think the movie over - and it does stay with you - that you realize it has kept faith with the essential Petey Greene, a man who knew his limits and was determined to live within them.... Eventually you may come to think of Talk to Me as a true movie rarity - a very honest yet curiously affecting experience."

Marcy Dermansky gives it 4½ out of 5 stars.

Update, 7/17: "Talk To Me is something of a political movie with little politics," argues David Corn at Alternet. "What the real Greene had to say about Vietnam, the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, drugs, elections - and I'm presuming he had some things to say on these and other hot-button subjects - is not in the movie.... Talk To Me, an engaging film, would be more powerful if it showed more of what Greene had actually said."

Posted by dwhudson at July 10, 2007 4:24 PM