Review: One Night in Miami
Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 7:00PM
Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami is a wonderful departure from the traditional biopic formula. Instead of focusing on key events from the lives of the famous, One Night in Miami gives us a fictionalized, night-long conversation four iconic men might have been having at that exact moment in history. The titular night is February 25th, 1964, just after Cassius Clay’s boxing match with Sonny Liston and just before the famous athlete changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and former NFL player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) gather together in a motel room to discuss the weight they carry as celebrities to help create social change through the Civil Rights Movement. Thanks to the lead actors, along with genius writing by Kemp Powers who adapted his own play for the screen, we’re able to get a glimpse of the real people behind the iconic personas...
At the film’s center is Kingsley Ben-Adir who’s best in show as the self-aware, militant, and astute yet unguarded Malcolm X. While Ben-Adir plays Malcolm X as a man with sharp diction and a rigid reserve, his explosive moments, where he forces the other three men to see why they should play their part, reveal a more fragile side to the more famed activist. Meanwhile, Aldis Hodge acts as co-MVP as NFL player Jim Brown. As tensions escalate throughout the night, Brown serves as the group mediator and even as Hodge remains observant, his authoritative line deliveries are enough to change thee mood. Especially during a pivotal conversation involving Brown and Malcolm X where Brown forces Malcolm to step away from his own worldview.
Then there’s Leslie Odom Jr. who’s in fine form as musician Sam Cooke. His conflict with Malcolm X is key the film's arc. Malcolm X wants Cooke to speak to the Civil Rights movement while Cooke, he feels, is only worried about bringing himself a financially stable future in the music industry. As Cooke and Malcolm X collide, Odom Jr. portrays the singer with charisma and tenacity. He stubbornly holds onto his ideals while forcing Malcolm X to see that the world isn’t as black and white as he believes it is. Eli Goree is also exceptional as the magnetic and blustering Cassius Clay even if his storyline isn’t given as much weight as that of his co-stars.
The inspired parallel opening scenes smartly lay the foundation for the theme of brotherhood, as all four men are having rough individual moments: Clay gets pinned down in his 1963 boxing match with Henry Cooper, Cooke flops at a Copacabana performance, and Brown encounters a racist white Southerner (Beau Bridges). Once all four men are gathered in the motel room, where most of the film takes place, they're talking race relations throughout the night. Despite the weighty themes and thoughtful dialogue, Powers manages to insert small moments of humor to give it some mirth.
This imagined conversation takes place in the 1960s, but is a conversation that could easily take place in the 80s... or 2021. That searing timeliness, along with the masterful acting and writing give One Night in Miami its impact. This is an assured feature directorial debut from Regina King that proves her to be a gifted multi-hyphenate talent. A-
One Night in Miami is currently in theaters and is available to stream on Prime Video on January 15th.
Reader Comments (28)
Is it similar to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom?
Hodge was easily best in show for me.
@ Pedro
Outside of both having a (mostly) Black cast, they’re nothing alike. Why even make the comparison?
This is so thoughtfully written. I couldn't get on this movie's wavelength at all but maybe it's worth another shot
Jess - they’re both play adaptations that focus on the race issues of America’s past...
This film is so going to upset the far right white supremacists.
Same question:it's like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom? People talking all the time in a single location and we must say that it is a good movie for white americans sense of fault?
@ PP
Really?
@ Working stiff
C'mon Ma Rainey's is a filmed theater show. The cast did a wonderful, great, marvelous job, but the movie is soooo boring and heavy!
I saw this at AFI Fest and it is really good. Ben Adir is excellent.
Also liked the cinematography and costumes. It is hard to do historically accurate and creative men's wear and the Academy rarely pays attention.
Glad I don't live in America so I don't have to pretend that this movie is awards worthy.
@Jens: this was my point on Ma Rainey's but I love Regina King so I'm so curious for this
@ PP
I was reacting to this:
I don’t know where you and Jens (see quote below) are located, but if you think the subject of these two films is only relevant to the U.S. and that white Americans’ “sense of fault” exists in some kind of vacuum, you are much mistaken.
This is some toxic bullshit:
@Workingstiff
This is exactly why, I rarely come here anymore. The people on the blog make comments like this all the time towards Black led films. No one calls them out on their BS. It's fine if you do not like the films, but turning it into oh critics only like it bc of White Guilt is beyond insulting and racist. Imagine if someone said this about LGBT films on here.
Who knew way back in the 90's when she first appeared Regina King had this in her,maybe she could be be a surprise Director nominee but 2 women might blow their minds.
Curious: is it just them in the motel room, or are there bookends/flashbacks/etc.?
Because it sounds incredibly pedantic and dull if it's just important figures in history talking to each other and reflecting on their importance.
And this I would find true even if their skin was fuchsia. Hence why I ask. :)
I did not care for this movie and Ma Rainey. It had nothing to do with blackness. It had to do with boredom.
My Dinner With Regina
Nikki -- I have never seen comments like that *not* get called out by other commenters. In fact on this very post two people did so before you called them out.
Manny -- One Night in Miami has scenes before they get to the hotel room and it does leave the hotel room on occassion as well. It is not boring.
Everyone -- People, it is quite strange to say that people only love *any* movie out of some sense of obligation. How about we just trust that people like the movies they like? For the record I liked One Night in MIami too (not quite as much as Matthew here but the acting and characters are interesting and wholeheartedly agree that it's a nice change from biopics.) I got these same comments on my Ma Rainey review which is bizarre because i never "pretend" to like movies. I like what i like and i don't like what i don't like.
I've never understood the resistance to films based on stage plays. Yes, they're different artforms but movies with only a single setting aren't necessarily uncinematic. They are just slightly different to watch then movies that are constantly changing locations. And watching great actors do their thing in a single location does not equate with boring to me.
Actually, my question was directed to the “filmed play feeling” of the movie, if it was similar to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. It did not have anything to do with race.
Thanks, Nathaniel!
I LOVE one-setting movies, but it also depends heavily on WHAT the subject matter is. A treatise on the importance of black icons on American history is a whopper of a pedagogical exercise, so the limited setting seemed to be detrimental.
Love to be proved wrong though. I’ll see!
For the record, I have mixed feelings about One Night in Miami. I really liked the ingredients—performances, crafts, subject matter etc—but I have a hard time with projects (theater or film) where historical figures are mainly being historical as opposed to just living their lives. It can be a fine line, and The Crown is pretty successful at walking it; Hamilton is incredibly clever at pulling it off (and being a musical helps a lot). Precisely for this reason, my favorite sections of Miami were everything when the four principals were NOT in the same place: Ali’s fights, Cooke’s performances, Malcolm with his family, Brown on that plantation.
This movie isn't about the importance of Black icons. It's about 4 Black men who in 1964 had a modicum of celebrity discussing how to harness that and use it within the Civil Rights Movement.
Murtada,
All due respect,
How on earth is discussing “how to harness” celebrity “and use it within the Civil Rights Movement” NOT about the importance of black icons? I’m actually confused as to how these two things, for you, are not connected in ANY way.
Manny - my point is that when the movie takes place they weren't the icons that we know of today. They were just begining to find success and celebrity.
Of course. Sure.
But in the moment or retroactively or purely embedded in the meta of it all, the work speaks to their place in iconography, black or otherwise. We as the audience evaluate the history as they as characters seek to understand how they can (or already are) informing that same history.
I get what you’re saying, so let me be more specific: whether as part of the audience conversation, or implied in the characters conversing with one another, the role of black icons in US history is crucial to the narrative of One Night in Miami.
But perfectly acceptable to agree to disagree here.
Manny - 1 , Murtz - 0
I really miss the play adaptations they use to make back in the golden age, so i'm very happy to get not one but two stage adaptations this year.
I do agree that Ma Rainey and One Night in Miami would have make for a grrrreat back-to-back viewing at the movies !!!