Movie Reviews: Two For One

I saw Kasi Lemmons' Talk to Me as well as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I liked both of them but I liked Talk, a whole lot more.

Talk to Me is the story of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, a D.C. radio D.J played by Don Cheadle. I love Cheadle as an actor, and I have since I caught Picket Fences reruns on FX (I will admit I didn't watch Fences when it originally aired on CBS) played wonderfully by Cheadle, Petey becomes an engaging and entertaining character, and I found myself wanting to know more about this figure that I hadn't known before.

Cheadle isn't the only bright spot in the film, Chiwetel Ejiofor, another actor I love (thanks Serenity!)works wonders in his role as Dewey Hughes, Petey's boss and later manager. The acting it top notch, the direction is on point and the editing is seemless. You're taken through two decades of time and only once are you given a cyron of the time period, everything else is indicated by clothes and hair styles.

There's a lot of great stuff in Talk, mostly it's the acting which I was in awe of, there's a great deal of humor as well, including one memorable scene where Petey, back for the second time to interview as the new D.J., has a run in with the station's uptight receptionist. The humor doesn't detract though, from the some of the serious subject matter, including Petey having to broadcast they day that Martin Luther King was assassinated, when a lot of D.C. was burning. It's a touching and moving scene, especially the moment before they all go home and Martin Sheen, playing E.G. Sonderling, the owner of the WOL radio station, is in the hall trying very hard not to cry at what's happened. I didn't cry but I did feel a great sense of loss, which is effective considering I was thirteen years removed from the incident.

I'd have to say that Talk to Me is probably the best film I've seen this year, right above Ratatouille.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was enjoyable for the most part, I felt it was better than the last time out, the Prisoner of Azkaban. I know a lot of people enjoyed the new direction Azkaban took, especially with putting the young wizards in normal street clothes, but I thought the director tried to cram far too much into it (and I haven't read any of the books) and the editing was sloppily done to get to the main plot but to keep in the little details that you needed to understand it.

Order of the Phoenix doesn't really have that problem, the writer and director choosing to go with the main plot from the beginning (from what I understand of what was left out from the books). Harry is growing older and there is a darker tone to these films, including one jump out of your seat moment at the beginning involving the ghost like wardens of Azkaban. I can really only give my opinion as a lay person, like I said I never boarded the Harry Potter train so I don't know anything about the books (aside from the fact that J.K. Rowling is a very rich woman) but it was a fun escape for two hours.

Though I will say watching Order made me think back to Transformers and the big problem I had with that movie. On one hand you've got people saying, "C'mon, it's a movie about giant fucking robots," and on the other you've got a movie about teen wizards who use spells and say things like "muggle". Harry Potter could have been just as ludicrous of a plot as Transformers but there was an internal logic and reality that was created and the author/screenwriters didn't feel like having a world of magic gave them cart blanche to do whatever the hell they wanted to, unlike Transformers which I still believe treats its audience as if they were too stupid to know better. Potter will most definitely be number one at the box office but I don't doubt Transformers will still be in the top five, it's just good that Harry shows audiences that you don't have to play to the lowest common denominator in order to entertain.