Rojo
Talk to Me
Talk to Me is a film that could slip under the radar. At the video store this could be just another film that you would browse past, maybe pick up and have a quick scan, and unless you’re a fan of Don Cheadle and/or Chinwetel Ejiofor (The Inside Man) you would probably put the case back and move onto something else. Well let me just say maybe you should get this film out.
It’s been long recognised that Cheadle is a master actor, (I have been watching ER and he has been a cameo on the series I’m watching and he’s amazing and that‘s ER). He has chosen many great roles and has been cast in many others and as Petey Green he is once again amazing.
Talk to Me is based on a true story of Green and Dewey Hughes (Ejiofor) and their struggle to make a radio station the best they can. The way they chose to do this is by telling it how it is. Set in the late 60’s amongst racial turmoil Green an ex-con lays it all out for his listeners. Confessing his past, (“I have been sober for five hours now”) his thoughts, and his desires for not just black people but for the world in general.
Now don’t get me wrong this isn’t a film about a black man with a grudge talking smack on the radio. This is about a man who looks out at the world (his world) and hates what he sees and the only way he sees changing it, is to make light of it.
The secrets to life are timing and delivery (I say this a lot) Green’s timing and his delivery are jive poetry. Lines like “the next man on my show is a pimp I wouldn’t have wash my car, but y’all voted him a city official”.
As Green’s popularity grows we begin to understand that he’s a man who wanted something and when he got it didn’t know if he wanted it or what to do with it. Hughes is a man who was so driven knowing what he wanted and kept pushing till he got it. With Green, Hughes comes so close to realising his dreams but Green’s insecurity’s get in his way driving a wedge between the two.
“I need you man, you say the things I’m too afraid to say, and I do the things you’re too afraid to do”
“That sounds good man, you should put that on a greeting card”.
Talk to Me is entertaining, I was laughing so much throughout the first half of the film, other moments I almost cried (this is not Sex in the City for men). Petey Green on the scene is a larger than life character, a type of man that if you met you would feel his presence.
But the second half of the film seems to lose itself. We move away from Green and focus on Hughes highlighting how good Ejiofor is (he‘s going places people). The film to me also gets lost on who it was truly about, (obviously it’s about Green and is promoted this way) but it is equally about Hughes. It is these two problems I have with the film that I think detracts from it, that is it. Other from this confusion this is a strong well written film that you should not walk past.
Talk to Me 7/10
PS. Kick arse soundtrack. Like killer soundtrack.
