Talk to Me (2007)

Talk to Me. Directed by Kasi Lemmons. Written by Michael Genet and Rick Famuyiwa. Release Date: 3 August 2007. Country of Production: United States. Key Cast: Don Cheadle ("Petey" Greene), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dewey Hughes), Taraji P. Henson (Vernell Watson).

Talk to Me is a fairly straightforward biopic about a famous black radio DJ and live performer named Petey Greene, who made a name as a man of the people in Washington D.C. in the late sixties and seventies. This is a classic example of a movie based on a true story that is interesting almost only because of the source subject.

Don't get me wrong, the performances are more than adequate and the direction is satisfactory. Don Cheadle is funny and convincing as Petey Greene, and its a story that I'm glad I heard. The music--primarily 60s soul--really adds to the mood of the film, despite the fact that the dates of the songs' releases and the timeline of the film are not always in sync.

The editing bothered me a bit I must admit. Jumps in time are to be expected in a film encompassing the greater part of a person's life, so I let those go. The big problem for me, though, was an unusually high number of match cuts. Sentences were started in one scene and finished in another; or one character is doing something and another is performing the same action in the next scene. I get that its a device often used to create parallel significance, but this was excessive.

Regardless of a few nitpicks, though, this movie boils down to a well enough made biopic worth seeing, if only for the fact that Petey Green was an interesting and influential black American.