TALK TO ME

Talk To Me is a biopic depicting the life and career of the late Petey Greene who was an ex-convict-turned-radio-and-TV-personality based in Washington D.C. who was known for NOT shying away from controversy as the film clearly depicts. Noted actor Don Cheadle (of Hotel Rwanda and Iron Man 2 fame) plays Greene. The film begins with the by-now-infamous incident while Greene was incarcerated for armed robbery when he had a fellow inmate climb up the prison water tower and threaten to commit suicide so he could talk him down and gain "influence" with the parole board, which apparently worked as he was paroled a week later. The movie, of course, goes on to recount Greene's life and career and his relationships, especially with his friend and manager Dewey Hughes (played by an actor whose I can't pronounce and won't even try!). However, like with many--or most--other biopics, this flick does take at least a few liberties with said life and/or career; like, for instance, the movie depicts him having a rather shaky appearance on The Tonight Show (back when, of course, Johnny Carson was the host) even though in real life Greene just blew off the appearance altogether. All in all, Talk To Me is a pretty decent biopic with a strong performance by the always capable Cheadle as Greene (although Don and Petey didn't really look alike even with the wig!). Oh yeah, make sure NOT to confuse this film with an earlier film called Listen To Me, which starred former child actor turned "evangelical" whack-a-do Kirk "Growing Pains" Cameron. OK? A sidenote: One thing the film definitely doesn't depict was when noted shock jock Howard Stern went on Petey Greene's TV show dressed in--and, no, I'm NOT making this up!--BLACKFACE (of which you can find on YouTube, by the way). Another thing the flick doesn't depict was when Petey went on his TV talk show eating a watermelon (of which you can also find on YouTube, by the way).