KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
Funny and heartfelt in equal measure, this biopic of a ground-breaking Washington DC radio host starts out feeling like it's been assembled from a kitset.
But, largely thanks to Cheadle and Ejiofor in the main roles, it settles into a persuasive rhythm and airs some of the big questions about black struggle against oppression without resorting to glib, feel-good answers.
It's 1966. Cheadle plays "Petey" Greene, doing time for armed robbery, who engineers early parole with the breathtaking chutzpah that will become his signature. He then (literally) talks his way into a job on a radio station whose target audience is urban black and whose ratings are flatlining. He proceeds to scandalise the management with his on-air shtick and the ratings rise.
So far, so formula. But the film undercuts its potential hokiness by focusing on the relationship between Greene and Dewey Hughes (Ejiofor), the uptight middle-management type who reluctantly employs him.
Crisp and ambitious in suit and tie, Hughes believes in playing the white man at his own game; Petey wants to "keep it real".
With an ear-popping soundtrack of contemporary hits, the movie would be great even if you had your eyes closed.
But it also does a lot to convey the turmoil of the times, particularly in the sequence that shows Petey trying to calm a city close to explosion after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Even at this distance, those of us who remember that day - and the death of Bobby Kennedy a few weeks later - had a sense of what was lost. This film reminds us how little has been regained.
Cast: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cedric the Entertainer, Vondie Curtis Hall, Martin Sheen
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Running time: 118 mins
Rating: M, contains violence, offensive language and sex scenes
Screening: Berkeley, Rialto, SkyCity
Verdict: Biopic of ground-breaking black DJ flirts with but avoids hokiness because of outstanding performances from Cheadle and Ejiofor.
