Watch Talk Radio For Free

Good start, but then it gets ruined

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Barry Champlain (Eric Bogosian) is a hard-talking Jewish radio late-night show host in Dallas. Laura (Leslie Hope) is his latest young producer and sex partner. Stu (John C. McGinley) is his long-time call screener. It's Friday night. His boss Dan (Alec Baldwin) has just negotiated a nation-wide deal with Metro Wave. Their representative Dietz (John Pankow) is observing his show. With the new pressures, Barry begs his ex-wife Ellen (Ellen Greene) to help him. She was there from the very start when he was just a slick-talking suit salesman and she arrives for his big Monday night debut. It's a nightly onslaught of racist Chet, dim-witted Debbie, druggie Kent (Michael Wincott) who claims his girlfriend has OD, and many many others.This is an intense hard-talking thriller from Oliver Stone. Bogosian's performance is something special. The verbal gymnastic is incredible. It's the wonderful cesspool of human fears and loathing.

Sandwiched between his Oscar-winning films WALL STREET and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, Oliver Stone brilliantly blends co-writer/actor Eric Bogosian's original stage play with the real life murder of Denver radio show host Alan Berg in what is often called his most underrated film to date.Dallas radio show host Barry Champlain's penchant for abusing and pushing people's buttons has led him to an offer he couldn't refuse...A chance for taking his show to national syndication. Upon hearing the news, Champlain subjects his ex-wife (Ellen Greene, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL) along with his co-workers to an unforgettable night of offending his audience. But somewhere, a mysterious killer is lurking in the shadows...Bogosian gives probably an ingenious performance as the arrogant host with intense energy and bravura presence. Another actor that also stood out is Michael Wincott (THE DOORS, THE CROW) as the air-headed metal kid who somehow ended up as an unscheduled guest. At the center of this chaos is Greene who brings sincerity and concern to her committed performance.Stone delivers a live-wire satire on "Shock radio" and the politics of adjusting Barry Champlain's controversial persona for the masses. However, the issue of media predominance would later be revisited in NATURAL BORN KILLERS six years later.TALK RADIO is a film that gets you to the core. It is an underrated experience that you will never forget.

I imagine that back in '88, "Talk Radio" was pretty outlandish; a media satire in the "network" mold. Something that's fringe and probably won't ever happen. And even today, with a deluge of incendiary media "personalities", it hits home, strikes a nerve. and that is mostly due to Eric Bogosian's whirlwind performance. He beautifully captures the character's inner angst, turmoil; a man with such loathing, not only of himself but outwardly directed. The guy's a basketcase, on the verge of snapping while still goading the crazies that patronize his show.As the movie wends through its closing moments, you know this will end either in Bogosian exiting the radio station to face another day of this insanity, or suffer the wrath of an unhinged listener. You just get that feeling. It's inescapable. But it's still a surprise, either way. This movie has an unbelievable knack for amping the tension (in an enclosed studio, no less) and getting under your skin.7/10

More fast talking macho pyrotechnics from "Oliver Stone", a director whose love for alpha men borders on the homo-erotic."Talk Radio" revolves around Barry Champlain, a self loathing radio host who molests his callers through a microphone. Though he spends the entire film seated at a desk, Barry exudes pure sonic physicality, using his alpha dog swagger to simultaneously masturbate his listeners and cut them apart like a radio DJ rapist. In between these acts of audio sex, Barry indulges in doing what Oliver Stone's filmography does best; ranting about political and social corruption in the most didactic and obvious ways possible."Radio" is fast, fun and gripping, the audience watching as Barry explodes, implodes, yells and reveals – rarely – glimpses of his own wounded psyche. Like the stage play upon which it is based, "Radio" then launches into a subplot about 1960s styled social passion being repackaged for 80s styled profit. Barry is himself your typical hippie truth teller, albeit one who has been seduced by power, adopting ridiculously cartoonish (and wholly constructed) personas in order to both connect to viewers and convey an illusion of potency. But this potency, and Barry's very identity, is based on self-delusion, the film drawing parallels between Barry's alienation, cynicism, impotency, hypocrisy and anger, and the very bigots who call and listen to his show.As it was based on a stage play (by Eric Bogosian), it's no surprise that "Radio" takes place at one location and unfolds on a fairly small, single set. Still, Stone keeps the pace fast. Though at times goofy, he, like Barry, inserts enough energy and muscular trickery to keep us entertained.8/10 – Stone's films tend to age badly, but "Talk Radio" has held up very well. Whilst most of his films are overproduced and self-important, this one is sparse and self-depreciating. It's also Stone's most autobiographical film, though perhaps unintentionally so. Worth two viewings.