No one really knows what happened the night of February 25th, 1964 in a small hotel room in Miami, Florida. All we really know is that four men; Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke met to celebrate Ali’s title win against Sonny Liston. While we don’t know what really happened, playwright and screenwriter Kemp Powers (“Soul,” “Star Trek: Discovery”) created a stage play of a fictional account of that night and now Amazon and Regina King (“Watchmen (2020),” “If Beale Street Could Talk”) have adapted the play into a film, with Powers writing the screenplay and King directing for the first time.
The play itself is an ambitious idea, trying to recreate what some of the biggest civil rights leaders in American history might have said to each other and discussed on a crossroads night for all of them, but thankfully the film nails arguably the most important aspect: respect. Even as these figures are being portrayed not as moral pariahs, but as real humans with flaws and internal issues, there’s the utmost level of respect on display from the actors and the crew.
Kingsley Ben-Adir (“The OA,” “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”) keeps a firm tone and levelheadness as Malcolm X but isn’t afraid to show the conflicted nature of some of his actions. There’s a lot of imitation to his speech patterns and vocal inflections, but nothing ever turns into parody or impersonations, keeping a high level of realism and respect.
The same goes for Eli Goree (“Ballers,” “Riverdale”) as Ali. While his voice has been impersonated thousands of times, Goree keeps everything balanced. He’s a big teddy bear, but that’s not where his character begins and ends. He may not be the most intelligent guy in the room, but he’s got his own kind of smarts and keeps his wits about him the entire time.
Aldis Hodge (“Leverage,” “Straight Outta Compton”) and Leslie Odom Jr. (“Smash,” “Hamilton”) may have roles smaller in scale, but they still stand toe to toe with Goree and Ben-Adir in terms of the skill and focus brought to the film. Hodge’s Jim Brown is the most mellow and soft-spoken of the group, maintaining an almost audience surrogate perspective as he mostly sits back and interjects when the other three are almost at each other’s throats.
Meanwhile Odom Jr.’s Sam Cooke is an energetic and fiercely opinionated man who seems to be Malcolm’s exact opposite. The two’s exchange towards the middle of the film about civil rights and the duties of a public and celebrity figure are without a doubt some of the most interesting material the film has to offer, and Odom Jr. knocks his role out of the park entirely.
Thanks to the pure electricity of the performances and the chemistry each actor has with the rest of the foursome, “One Night in Miami…” never feel stagnate. It bucks the typical slow burn trope that most serious dramas have and manages to make the one room it mostly takes place in feels lively and expansive.
There are also legitimate moral quandaries at play here, not the typical civil rights discussions that most studio dramas regurgitate year after year. There’s discussion of what someone owes the world based on their status and their success, if its better to succeed publicly or from behind the scenes, and even the examinations of religion and what kind of people organized religion can turn us into. Powers’s material isn’t a light affair by any means, but the crackling dialogue and actors keep it from ever feeling overbearing.
Simply put, “One Night in Miami…” is a gorgeous period piece with some terrific acting and writing. It’s all one could want from an adaptation like this; it delivers the material, moral questions, and superb acting all wrapped up in a gorgeous and well shot 60s era. If this is an indicator of things to come, Regina King may even surpass her high acting skills with her directing ones. 5/5
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