Let's Talk Film: Talk to Me

I've wanted to write something about this film the moment I first saw it( about four days ago.) At first, I thought I'd write a funky neat little review, witty, kind of like the ones you'd see in the City Paper. But, then I thought why? Why not just write something plain-spoken without the posturing of a critic. So here's what I thought about Talk to Me.

Talk to Me gets several cool points from me. This was that rare gem from the black cinema god (Apollo) who sends us a little something nice every year. Notice the rich dramatization of the time and place of this film. The music the imagined whiff of afro sheen, the bell bottoms, the polite sounds of the Supremes juxtaposed to James Brown. I'm always fascinated by works that treat history in unsentimental ways. I actually could feel the heaviness of the air, the shattered windows, the upturned cars in the city when Dr. Martin Luther King was assasinated.

And what about the realness of the film. I like how the writers/director didn't succumb to drawing a line in the sand where the bourgeois black character lives and where the felon/hustler/street brother existed. There's was an interesting walk on a tight rope where each character had something to impart on the other. They did not live in a vacuum as many folks would have us believe. There was a community that existed in the world of that film.

The characters weren't stock in the least. They were flawed, noble, vulnerable, and powerful in their own ways. Its examination of the ways in which the black community depend one another was right on. And, it also presented a different life of a former offender. When do we see a film that does not glorify the prison life? Although there were several hustler tactics that the protagonist play by Don Cheadle utilized. This film also brought to bear the attitudes that many middle class blacks have towards their kin who may have a history with the penal system.

On the whole, I thought this film was a sterling example of what black writers, directors, and actors should be doing with their talents. This is a work of art--both hands down.

Did anyone else see this film? What did you think?