Starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.. Directed by Regina King.
One Night in Miami comes with considerable buzz, with many hailing it as the film of the year, and a possible front runner for awards. This can often mean the film ends up being overly picked apart, but with her debut feature Regina King offers a film that more than lives up to the hype.
The film is set on the night Cassius Clay won the World Heavyweight title against Sonny Liston. In it, Clay, along with his three friends, activist Malcolm X, singer-songwriter turned producer Sam Cooke and NFL footballer Jim Brown celebrate, and discuss Clay’s newfound faith in the Nation of Islam.
There are times in Kemp Powers’ screenplay when its origins as a stage play (itself written by Powers) shows. There’s a lot of big talks in rooms about the future, with a 20/20 view to what we know will occur, and yet what Powers manages to do is write these four men, each controversial and incredibly influential in their respective fields, as three-dimensional human beings.Â
It’s not just that Malcolm X is a stern authority, he’s filled with a wonder at creativity, where Clay is a showman and blunt object but here shown to be supportive and excited for his friends. The script is sharply written and offers the four leads ample material to work with, as well as the frame work from which King can focus her directorial prowess.
And focus she does. King is on one hell of a hot streak, having won the Oscar for that sensational turn in Barry Jenkins If Beale Street Could Talk and then anchoring miniseries Watchmen to great acclaim, it will surprise no one on oscar night when King sits as one of the directing nominees and it’s entirely possible that the first Black director to win the gong will be a woman.
It’s a terrifically confident debut, and a searing comment on masculinity. King keeps the focus of her four leads, the men that history will remember, all four successful and famous but on the cusp of securing their legacies. King directs the film as if it’s the green room before a show, setting up what all four men have done, while we know what they will do.
King also treats the Islam aspects of two of her leads with respect, a sequence that plays out showing X and Clay praying to Allah before Clay’s fight doesn’t laugh at them, doesn’t mock them, it treats their faith with every ounce of respect it deserves, and would be shown if they were saying the Our Father.
It’s a big themes film, with plenty of civil rights talk but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t fun to be had. Yes, it’s timely, yes it’s speaking to the Black Lives Matter crowd, but it’s also a thrillingly entertaining film that pits these four personalities against one another and allows sparks to fly.
At the heart is Kingsley Ben-Adir, in what will no doubt be a star-making turn as Malcolm X. It’s not just that he gets the vocal inflections right, or his voice has the right level of seriousness, nor even the classic suit with glasses and hair cut, it’s the hand gestures when he gets angry that sell the performance. He looks like X but that’s not enough, he inhabits a man bearing the weight of an entire race upon his shoulders.
Eli Goree captures the playfulness of Clay perfectly, in a way this is sort of an origin story for how Cassius Clay a 22-year-old Islamic convert became Muhammad Ali, possibly the greatest boxer who lived. He dances around the ring like Clay, captures the bravado, but also the fear the confusion at the new world he’s entering.
Similarly, both Leslie Odom Jr and Aldis Hodge as Cooke and Brown, are perfect support, though their characters might have a neater story, and are probably less well known – though still titans of their fields, their actors inhabit them with a love for their race but also an understanding that what X stands for might not work for them, they don’t run in the world of politics, or at least not explicitly. Odom Jr, who everyone has now seen in Tony winning form as Aaron Burr in Hamilton is at his best when put on a stage to perform songs and when he does the camera loves him, he is a true performer. Hodge meanwhile maintains the powerful dignity of Brown, the low voice and stern demeaned that belies a more playful side that Brown often showed on screen.
It becomes a film about a change, X is on the verge of publishing his autobiography, Brown is on the verge of making the pivot to movies, Clay is on the verge of becoming Ali, and Cooke is on the verge of making more substantial music, the song A Change is Gonna Come plays out over a sequence of destiny fulfilling in beautiful fashion.
It’s a film that lives up to the hype with a tale of friendship, destiny and men grappling with their role in the future of their people. Come awards season do not be surprised to see this topping lists and nominations. It’s really something else.
