Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Monkeywess This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

akdaddy I heard people compare this to Private Parts, let me be the first to say not even close. This story is not trying to be a comedy, yet a heartfelt story of black America during the late 1960's. Peety Green was an innovator and changed the face of radio in America. This movie gives is a great story and combines music to flow all the way through. I have watched it over and over again and have a hard time finding a flaw in the performances of the actors. Martin Sheen gives a great performance and when he breaks down crying, in a particular scene, I can't help feeling my heart being torn out to. It really takes the viewer their and brings us close to what people might have been feeling at the time of tragedy in US history. I watched Private Parts and I sure did not feel the way I felt watching this film.

somehope Is Don Cheadle the greatest living actor? Pauline Kael once wrote that very sentence after seeing a actor named Morgan Freeman in "Street Smart." I don't know if Cheadle is or isn't, but as I got to know his character Petey Greene in this film, I was thinking he did a better job rounding out a character of a DJ than either Robin Williams ("Good Morning, Vietnam")or Eric Boogisan ("Talk Radio.") For an actor to live in a DJ booth during critical parts of the film, that's high praise.Yet, Petey/Don does go outside the booth more than anyone especially seeing his beloved Washington D.C. burning after the MLK assassination. I haven't seen all of Cheadle's work, especially the nominated "Hotel Rawanda," but in the characters I see him create from the big time movie "Boogie Nights" to the fantastic and fantastically under seen rape drama "Things Behind the Sun," (and I'm probably missing more), he is one of the best actors in America, bar none, for creating real characters. Petey is one of his best, because we get to see him as a convict to civic voice to 70's almost-but-not-quite national celebrity on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" and all stops in between. I have never heard of Greene ever before in my life, but Cheadle creates such a vivid character,you feel as though he was a girl-hopping, street-smart, articulate, friend.Cheadle couldn't have pulled off the fine acting without fine actors around him such as Martin Sheen as the radio station boss,Tarj P. Henson as his outspoken and wild girlfriend, and of course, Chitwel Ejofor as the man who becomes his friend and manager after hating his guts. (Long story and a little cliché; but Ejofor is just as brilliant as I'm telling you Cheadle is.) I'm writing this months after seeing the film so I may have missed some good and bad points. Nonetheless, this film is the real deal, and one of this great actor's best roles.

moviedude1 I had no idea what this film was about, and, not having been born until 1962, I had no idea who Petey Greene was or what he was about, but if Don Cheadle captured the essence of the man, he did a heck of a job! Here's what I got out of this film: First and foremost, Greene was a man who was NOT afraid to speak his mind. The second thing is that he was a person who had his finger on the pulse of the people. The last thing that stood out was that he was someone who wasn't afraid to go after what he wanted...not just the job, but even when he went on the air after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and asked for prayers from the people of Washington, D.C., not bloodshed and riots.The last part of this film that got my attention was the relationship between Petey (Cheadle) and Dewey Hughes (Chwetel Ejiofoir), which I felt that this film was angled at from time to time. It drifted towards the end from one to the other and more about Dewey and his rise than about Petey's fall.As a film buff, this one had my attention from the second the first frame started, and as something of the historical side, I'm not sure how accurate it was, but I can only hope that the real Petey Greene was as captivating as this film was.

isabelle1955 When I first watched this movie in the theatre a couple of months back, I was certain I'd seen some of the year's best performances. Watching it again last night on DVD, I'm still certain of that, but equally I'm puzzled as to why this movie didn't do better in theatres? As well as the performances, it has a reasonably well written script, a compelling story based on a real life character, some well known actors and a sound track so good I went online and bought it the next day.Maybe I'm showing my age? It's based in the 1960's around the time of the Civil Rights Movement. I was just a kid but I remember it well, even from my viewpoint across the Atlantic. Audiences seem to cope fine with future fantasies, current times and history prior to the last fifty years, but recent history often seems to sink without trace. Bobby, set in roughly the same time period, also disappeared rapidly from theatre screens. Maybe it's only boring old codgers like me who find this stuff interesting anymore? Ralph "Petey" Greene, well played by Don Cheadle, was quite a character if this movie is to be believed (and there are those who say it shouldn't be believed too much.) An ex-con (he rather liked the term 'miscreant'), after getting out of jail he talked his way into a job as DJ on a Washington DC radio station WOL–AM at just the right time. Ratings were falling and the station was losing touch with its largely black, poor and urban fan base. Greene was blazingly honest, radical and a compulsive communicator. He spoke up on air about social injustice and racism, giving the station a hard time occasionally with the federal authorities who license the airwaves, but rapidly becoming a popular local voice for the African-American community at a time of enormous social upheaval and change. His Program Director Dewey Hughes (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor who was so good last year in Inside Man) apparently took a huge risk putting him on air but went on to become his manager. It has to be said the movie was written by Hughes' son, so may be very biased in his favour.The story takes us through the late 60's, the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, the riots that followed, and into the 70's, complete with the fabulously awful clothes and haircuts of the time (I remember them all too well!) and the great music. Greene was instrumental in calming DC down after Dr King's murder in '68, talking movingly on air to his listeners as the streets burned outside. He introduced James Brown at a memorial concert the next night, and then went on to success on TV. Those at least are facts. I think...But like most interesting people, Petey Greene apparently had his demons. And that's where opinions diverge. According to the movie, drink and drugs caught up with him all too often. He had a tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend Vernell (lively performance by Taraji P Henson) and eventually split from Hughes. Greene's family has maintained that Talk to Me misrepresents him as a drug fuelled womanizer, and certainly I have no idea where the truth lies. What is known is that he died at 53, and over 10,000 mourners turned out for his funeral, still the largest gathering for any non-elected official in DC history, that Dewey Hughes is still alive and successful, living in LA, and apparently no one is talking to anyone else involved in this project.Which is sad. But it is nonetheless a pretty good movie, and it should have done better than it did.