"Talk to Me," which stars Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor, hearkens to another era, to a time before shock jocks bestrode morning drive time like colossal blowhards. Cheadle plays Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, an ex-con turned Washington, D.C., radio and television talk-show host, beloved local icon and Howard Stern role model. Ejiofor plays the straight-laced Dewey Hughes, who put him on the air when nobody else would have. Their unlikely friendship and partnership, founded on a shared commitment to speak out against injustice, is the focus of director Kasi Lemmons' film, which observes the fervor of a bygone activist culture longingly, as if to ask, what's with everybody now?
Greene and Hughes met in 1966 at the Lorton correctional facility, where Greene was serving a 10-year sentence and Hughes was paying regular visits to his brother Milo (Mike Epps). As part of a work program, Greene had been allowed to host a show from the prison radio station and discovered he had a talent and passion for it. Hughes was then the program director for KWOL, a small, D.C.-based R&B radio station.
Eventually, Greene talked his way out of prison early, talked his way into a job as a morning-show host at KWOL and, after blowing his initial shot, commandeering the airwaves under threat of arrest. Whether these events transpired as depicted — flamboyant displays in the reception area, locking station manager and morning show DJ in their offices — is open to interpretation, but the upshot was that Hughes cemented his position in the business and Greene established himself as the voice of the "other" Washington, D.C., a beloved and galvanizing figure in the community. ...
