Movie Guide
Among this week's new releases: An effective drama largely set in a Manhattan loft, and an explosive look at an early shock jock on the radio.
New in theaters Interview (R)
Director: Steve Buscemi. With Steve Buscemi, Sienna Miller. (83 min.)
The Dutch director Theo Van Gogh had hoped to remake his 2003 film "Interview" in English with Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller but was assassinated the following year by an Islamist extremist. Buscemi took over the project, which is essentially a two-character piece about a political reporter assigned a puff piece about a sexpot actress. The back-and-forth between the performers is tensely choreographed, and Buscemi does a good job opening up the action, which mostly takes place in a Manhattan loft. Grade: B+
Talk to Me (R)
Director: Kasi Lemmons. With Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor. (118 min.)
Don Cheadle, along with Taraji P. Henson, act up a storm in this biopic about Petey Greene, a 1960s-era deejay who shook up the airwaves with his streetwise rant. Their performances deserve a better film. Director Kasi Lemmons serves up Petey's rise and fall as an object lesson in how America wasn't ready to accommodate black pride and effrontery. But what about his contemporary Richard Pryor? Whatever brought Greene down was far more complex than this film allows for. Grade: C+