Synopsis
The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
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Cast
- Don CheadlePetey Greene
- Chiwetel EjioforDewey Hughes
- Bruce McFeePrison Sign-In Guard
- Mike EppsMilo Hughes
- Peter MacNeillWarden Cecil Smithers
- Adam GaudreauEscorting Guard
- Taraji P. HensonVernell Watson
- Cedric the Entertainer'Nighthawk' Bob Terry
- Martin SheenE.G. Sonderling
- J. Miles DaleProgram Director
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
A rowdy, richly offbeat biopic. - 88
Chicago Tribune
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. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
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
The result is a movie that offers uplift without phoniness, history without undue didacticism and a fair number of funny, dirty jokes. - 70
Washington Post
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
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. - 60
Variety
Alternates too deliberately between jaunty comedy and serious message-making. - 60
L.A. Weekly
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."
