'Talk to Me'

"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?

By Carina Chocano

July 13, 2007