Talk Radio

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Steve D Not as smart as it thinks it is. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/02/23 Full Review Shioka O Strong performance and direction made this film watchable from start to beginning. It reminds me Network by Sidney Lumet. Serious and disturbing, satiric at the same time. Maybe I would like to have the whole set in the radio booth, to make it more intense. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/04/22 Full Review Audience Member I'd lose my shit too if the dregs of society (the racists, the anti-Semites, the homophobes, the pitiful) were calling me every day. But Barry (Eric Bogosian), a Jewish shock-jock in Dallas, has made a career out of it. From suit salesman to nationally syndicated talk radio host, Barry is both loved and hated in the Dallas metro. He's a cheat who uses and manipulates women as much as he uses and manipulates white supremacists on the air. While most of the film takes part over one day and night, the plot is spliced with flashbacks detailing Barry's career and rise to prominence and also his failed marriage to Ellen (Ellen Greene) — Ellen Greene always seems to play the most endearing characters. Armed with the perfect voice for radio and paired with quick wit, Bogosian plays our protag as a flawed, but lovable, character. Kent (Michael Wincott) was my favorite character, as the prankster-turned-guest on Barry's show. I definitely could've gone for more Kent. I also loved some of the shots, especially close-ups of Barry's mouth to the mic, his profile with a character in the background — gazing inside his glass cage like he's a beautiful, suffering animal at the zoo — and the rotating, climactic "breakdown" shot. The story, originally an off-Broadway play — a script that lends itself to this venue­­ — is based on the real, tragic case of Alan Berg. Talk Radio definitely has a lot to say about free speech, even if that means Barry is a crusader (and martyr) for the right to express it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review dave s Oliver Stone's Talk Radio is a compelling character study of a late-night shock-jock radio host who uses both his anger and his microphone as tools to keep a distance between himself and those invested in him, at one point stating that ‘there's nothing more boring than people who love you.' Oddly, it is most engaging and cinematic when confined to the broadcast booth, where Oliver Stone's creative direction and Eric Bogosian's electric performance as Barry Champlain make for riveting viewing. It tends to lose a bit of steam on the rare occasions when the movie wanders from the radio station, but, for the most part, it's a fascinating character study of one man's preoccupation with the dispossessed outcasts of society as he tries to find his place in the world. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Another one I never heard of and completely missed in the 80's... and 90's... and the entire 21st century... until now. I felt this was a very solid thriller/drama with good rising tension despite building towards a very unclear end. Strangely captivating in a good way and easy to laugh at in a bad way. Shocking that I had never heard of this. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Oliver Stone offers his usual incites into society and culture with a story that feels as confined as the radio studio itself. Eric Bogosian's great character acting brings to life Barry, a man who is such a character that you could easily believe his radio show could be on the next station in your car. Because it's loosely based on true events it makes that feeling more intense. There was a little too much time spent in flashbacks where we could have seen another of Barry's radio broadcast and more development of the Nazi listener. Many possible uses of split lens effects throughout the studio scenes is a great stylistic touch. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 12/30/21 Full Review Read all reviews

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