One of the season’s most pleasant surprises, Regina King’s One Night in Miami, based on the play by Kemp Powers suggesting a 1964 meeting of minds between titans Jim Brown, Malcom X, Cassius Clay and Sam Cooke, Jr., is a superbly acted and thought-provoking movie, the kind of adult-level, commercial entertainment largely absent in the current era of pushed-back studio release dates, and a likely Oscar nominee shoo-in for the crowd-pleasing category (ahem, the category that often wins the trophy).
As a director, King—the prolific actress who snagged a deserved Oscar herself two years ago for Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and whose career is hot on the heels of her smart turn in HBO’s Watchmen—proves expert at showcasing rich performances in what is often referred to as an “actor’s movie.” But her impressive shaping and pacing of Kemp’s aria of oration while eliminating the usual claustrophobia of stage-to-screen adaptations (like this year’s inert Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) qualifies her achievement as markedly superb.
Perhaps most impressive is that King has taken four well-known cultural icons and cast their personas anew, as to suggest fresh voices, perspectives and relationships. In One Night in Miami, the viewer’s initial fascination comes from spending intimate time with four men we know as history, but the real intrigue is in the nuances of their personal and sociopolitical ideologies, which memorably collide.
The picture jumps off from an actual hangout that purportedly took place on the 1964 Miami evening that 22-year-old Cassius Clay delivered a beat down to reigning heavyweight champ Sonny Liston, claiming the title and bragging rights. Following the bout, Clay (Eli Goree), football legend Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), crooner Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Kemp’s one-act play and screenplay adaptation find the men gathering in Miami’s Hampton House for a no-holds-barred night of penetrating, and highly-charged, debate about the role and responsibility of successful African American athletes and artists in American culture. At issue? The current state of civil rights, and the responsibility of a Black icon to drive social change for all, particularly when given media airtime and access to white culture and acceptance.
Each man has his own struggles. Malcolm X finds himself in the difficult position of bringing Clay (on the verge of publicly sharing his alliance with Malcom X and his intentions to become a Muslim) into the Nation of Islam, while ideological frictions have pushed he, himself, out. Brown, nearing the end of his pro football career with the Cleveland Browns, is headed to a future in Hollywood B-movies. And Cooke is struggling to cement his place in American music, trapped between seeking white chart acceptance (a Copacabana audience is displeased when he headlines) with benign, popular music while envious of the personal and social impacts of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind.
Once the picture’s second act kicks in and the men arrive at the motel, the actors give us four lightning-rod performances. Goree is a perfect Ali, all bouncing cocky swagger and million-dollar smile, and Hodge is on his game as always (after a recent career high in Clemency). But the movie zeroes in on the embattled friendship between a deeply pensive Malcom X (Ben-Adir) and a creatively unfulfilled Cooke (Odom, Jr.), who believes capitalist success and economic freedom is the solutions, even when accused of selling out his people and musical roots in soul and gospel.
The ensuing discourse dampens the night’s festivities, giving way to a multilayered analysis of what it means to be successful and Black in American culture. What is the role of individual success on the community? Should the men see themselves as symbols of social change? While Malcom X is the least monetarily successful of the group, he’s unsurprisingly the sharpest critic of what he sees as his wildly accomplished friends’ misplaced focus. How best to effect change? Radical or subversive? Public or private? In the press or in the art? By any means necessary, or with a softer stick?
At one moment, a brief rooftop sojourn provides a playful departure from the debate, as if King is attempting to let the picture breathe, at least physically. IT should be said that in an ensemble of uniform excellence, Ben-Adir’s intelligent, graceful portrait of Malcolm X as a man being quietly consumed by uncertainty, indecision, fear for his family, and for the future, is antithetical to the common perception of a man whose revolutionary persona is legendary. Even amongst four performances this good it is remarkable. And Hodge has a blistering early scene when visiting an old friend and great fan, played by Beau Bridges, who reminds the star running back, in no uncertain terms, of his place.
King’s triumphant picture culminates in a televised, emotional Cooke performance of A Change is Gonna Come, Odom, Jr., reminding everyone exactly why he won that Tony for his galvanic Aaron Burr turn in Broadway’s Hamilton.
One Night in Miami ends on an emotionally rousing note. The camaraderie in this elegant, generous film is earned, and packs a wallop.
4 stars.
