El Cantante

* WHERE: "Talk to Me" at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; "El Cantante" at area theaters.

* WHEN: Both films open today.

* RATING: Both films are rated R for pervasive language, some sexual content and, for "El Cantante," drug use.

* RUNNING TIME: "Talk to Me" is 118 minutes; "El Cantante" is 106 minutes.

* BOTTOM LINE: Two biographies, of a D.C. radio DJ and a pioneering Latino singer, show the ups and downs of putting a life on film.

Two flashy biographies set in the 1960s and '70s, "Talk to Me" and "El Cantante," hit Utah movie theaters today as examples of what goes right and what can go wrong rewriting someone's life.

Don Cheadle stars in "Talk to Me" as Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, a convict who lands a job in the mid-'60s as a straight-talking DJ at a flagging Washington, D.C., radio station. Greene's tell-it-like-it-is style rankles the station's owner (Martin Sheen), but the program director, Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor, from "Kinky Boots"), argues that Greene's raw, angry voice is the voice of the people in the racially charged capital.

Covering the same era, "El Cantante" tells of singer Hector LaVoe (played by singer Marc Anthony), who left Puerto Rico for New York City, teaming with band leader Willie Colon (John Ortiz) to create a hybrid musical form of Puerto Rican rhythm, jazz and R&B that took the name "salsa." The movie also chronicles LaVoe's rise to fame, the temptations of drugs and his tempestuous relationship with his headstrong wife, Puchi (played by Mrs. Anthony, Jennifer Lopez).

Both films capture their eras well, with copious soundtrack cues and over-the-top costumes that give Lopez and Taraji P. Henson ("Hustle & Flow"), who plays Greene's feisty girlfriend in "Talk to Me," the appropriately sexy looks.

"El Cantante" director Leon Ichaso ("Piñero") skims the surface of LaVoe's life, hitting on the usual musician biopic clichés already seen in "Ray" and "Walk the Line." On the other hand, "Talk to Me" director Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou") finds a richer story of African-American identity in the late '60s, particularly in Greene's calming words to his D.C. audience after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Screenwriters Michael Genet (Hughes' son) and Rick Famuyiwa ("Brown Sugar") also delve into the complex relationship between Greene and Hughes.

When Greene first confronts Hughes about a job, he sizes up the straitlaced Dewey as a "sellout" knuckling under to the Man. But Dewey reveals himself, in a sharply devised pool-hall scene that showcases Ejiofor's understated talent, to be a lot more than the suit he wears.

The final, and most telling, difference between the two films is the acting. Cheadle, an always-dynamic actor, is compelling as he delivers Greene's no-bull radio talks and stand-up comedy routines. He could lend some of Greene's charisma to Anthony, whose portrayal of LaVoe is an unending series of frowning expressions - the only real emotion coming out when he gets behind the mic and sings LaVoe's passionate, autobiographical lyrics. In this duel of period biographies, the talker beats the singer, hands down.

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