Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

SnoopyStyle It's May 1966. Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works programming at WOL-AM in Washington DC. During his visit with his brother in prison, he meets outrageous Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) who cajoles a promise to see him after he gets out. Petey gets out much sooner than expected. The station is losing ground to the competition but manager E.G. Sonderling (Martin Sheen) still won't let the street hustler Greene on the air. Dewey and Petey lock themselves in the booth and end up becoming the legendary media personality. Taraji P. Henson plays Petey's wild girlfriend Vernell Watson. Cedric the Entertainer plays another radio personality Nighthawk Bob Terry.It's a pretty straight biopic from Kasi Lemmons. I don't think Martin Sheen fits his character. He needs to be more straight laced and conservative. Cheadle and Ejiofor are terrific. Don Cheadle energizes the whole movie. It is without a doubt his movie and he owns it. Ejiofor is there every step of the way. He is just as powerful to counter Cheadle. Taraji P. Henson needs an honorable mention for her great work. The movie does fade in the last act as it loses the energy of Petey Greene. It may be a better option to follow Petey rather than Dewey.

Roland E. Zwick Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene was only a few months out of prison when, in 1966, he finagled his way into a job as D.J. at WOR, the premier soul station in the Washington D. C. area. With his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric and fired-up delivery, Petey quickly became known as a "truth teller" and the "voice of the people" for the station's predominantly black listening audience. It wasn't long before he was branching out into other areas of the entertainment industry including television and stand-up comedy.For about the first hour or so, "Talk to Me," directed by Kasi Lemmons, feels like a subdued and considerably lesser version of the far more animated "Private Parts," but then, at about the midway point, the movie hits its stride with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and Greene's on-air efforts to bring order to a city rent by anger and civil strife. In many ways, Greene's need to always be true to himself and what he stood for prevented him from ever achieving true mainstream popularity, mainly because he refused to play by the rules set down by the middle-brow entertainment establishment (his abortive - nay disastrous - appearance on The Tonight Show is a highlight of the movie).The ever impressive Don Cheadle slides effortlessly into the role of Greene, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is equally effective as Dewey Hughes, the man who gets Greene his first gig at the station. It is their tumultuous and complex relationship - which often deals with the issue of just how "assimilationist" blacks were supposed to be at that time - that becomes the galvanizing force of the movie.The temper of the era - spanning from 1966 to Greene's untimely death from liver cancer in 1984 - is effectively conveyed through a canny combination of newsreel footage and re-creations of key events of the time.

Vic_max I wanted to stop watching during the first 30 minutes due to boredom, but kept at it given the good reviews. I have mixed feelings about having continued.The strength of the movie consists of the clever dialog of "Petey Greene" and the fact that it is a historic biopic. Don Cheadle (Petey Greene) and Chiwetel Ejiofor do great jobs of acting, but the characters weren't really interesting. In fact, Petey Greene was mostly annoying and unpleasant to watch.I think the only thing I will take away from the movie are a few key bits of good dialog. The comments he made on the radio and at a rally after Martin Luther King was shot were interesting to hear. If you want to calm a city of full of anger and violence, his brief speeches (whether they were real speeches he gave or not) were pretty great. If you can just watch that segment (less than 15 minutes total), you might be better off than watching the whole thing.