Movie Reviewed: One Night in Miami...
Director: Regina King
Date Reviewed: 13 March 2021
jamesintexas rating = ***
Streaming on Amazon
Regina King's directorial debut is the drama One Night in Miami... that features four African-American icons of the early 1960's all inside one hotel room for an ostensibly celebratory party after the victory of Cassius Clay over Sonny Liston. However, instead it captures the quietness of the moment, the compromising of values, and the ebb and flow of economic power amidst great social inequality. Clay (Eli Goree) is the Heavyweight Champion of the World, about to become Muhammed Ali with spiritual advisor and friend Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) by his side and escort into the Nation of Islam. Soulful crooner Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) is staying at the still segregated Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami but comes to these more modest environs to be with his friends, and NFL Star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) arrives with the emotional weight of a powerful opening scene where the top football player in the world returns to his home county to be confronted by powerful racists.
Based on a stage play by Kemp Powers, of which I am unfamiliar, the film hinges upon different pairings of men throughout and the intellectual discourse therein. Cassius and Malcolm must unpack Malcolm's desire to have Cassius's conversion to serve as an example to the world while also considering his own crumbling relationship to the Nation of Islam and whatever his next steps will be. Sam and Malcolm go round and round in examinations of artistic integrity, the types of songs that resonate with the movement, and the efficacy of different approaches to social change. Brown internalizes his rage from the opening scene but serves as a sounding board for Cooke and others, as he weighs his own options and desires.
Besides the obvious appeal of the early 1960's aesthetic with its neon-lit businesses and its impeccable suits and dresses, One Night in Miami... offers much more substance: a deep examination of the roles these men played within their own communities and the larger American community during a time of great upheaval. King's camera is incisive and slowly zooming in often, while also filling the frame with all four men in different positions and relationships to each other, mirroring the political and social movements of the time. Hers is a confident hand telling this story, and it may result in a Best Director nomination. The film offers smart, groundbreaking people having conversations that speak to the heart of their passions: preach, sing, entertain, and represent. One Night in Miami... offers a prism through which to see the myriad of richness these men encompass, and the coda offered by King in the film presents the divergent, devastating roads ahead as these men follow their hearts and consciences. A stand-out to me in a cast of terrific performers is certainly Ben-Adir in the showiest role as Malcolm X; however, I cannot shake Leslie Odom, Jr's performance of a song late in the film out of my head. It is searing. And Hodge's work is quiet yet completely captivating. I could not take my eyes off of how he was internalizing Jim Brown's emotions. And Eli Goree, new to me, was straight up fun to watch; clearly, he is a student of the verbal and facial rhythms of Cassius Clay, and of all four, he seems to be having the most fun.
And, the night in question is February 25th, 1964. My dad was 14, and my mom was 12. The world was and is certainly turning. I recommend this film.
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