Movie Review: One Night in Miami
Four Black American icons grapple with history and each other.
Christmas was good to Kemp Powers.
On December 25, 2020, Soul dropped on Disney+. Powers co-wrote and co-directed the acclaimed animated feature. That same day, another Powers-penned film, One Night in Miami, opened in limited release. It would hit Amazon a few weeks later.
Both movies are told from a Black perspective, though the similarities stop there. Soul is a movie about jazz, mixed with a healthy dose of magic and fantasy. One Night in Miami isn’t about jazz, and it trades fantasy for reality. The majority of the story takes places over the course of one night following Cassius Clay’s 1964 upset victory over Sonny Liston. Following the match, Clay celebrates in a motel room in the company of such other Black notables as footballer Jim Brown, singer Sam Cooke, and civil rights icon Malcolm X. We watch and listen as the evening plays out with these four men, as they laugh and yell and reckon with the legacy of race in America. No, One Night in Miami isn’t about jazz. One Night in Miami is jazz.
The cast here plays off each other with the smoothness of a quartet. Aldis Hodge as Brown is as steady and cool as a bass line while Leslie Odom Jr. as Cooke and Eli Goree as Clay trade-off on harmonies. Odom sings. Goree raps. Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X is the melody, the driving force that brings these disparate parts together. Each man plays a figure large and iconic in our national consciousness, yet each finds a way to humanize these icons, to tap into their insecurities and their flaws. They all talk — the film is based on a play, so they talk a lot — but they also have long moments of silence, moments of sizing themselves up in mirrors, of hanging their heads in shame, of straightening their backs in pride. Each performer finds a way to make both his words and body sing.
Of course, much credit goes to Powers’ script for allowing the cast these moments. Much credit also goes to Regina King, the bandleader, the director, for capturing these moments. King keeps her shots wide, gives her camera enough distance so that we can see these performances. Frequently all four men are captured onscreen at once so that we can appreciate the push-and-pull of their interactions. The camera’s distance also allows us to take in the impressive production and costume design, immersing us more deeply into the time period. As King’s first feature directing credit, One Night in Miami is a remarkable debut. Her deftness makes me excited for what comes next.
At one point in the film, Malcolm X explains that it is not a civil rights movement but it is a civil rights struggle. The line puts both the film and the history behind the film in context. These men — Clay, Cooke, Brown, and Malcolm — are not flat figures in a textbook. They lived, fought, laughed, cried. They struggled. As Black men in America, they struggled. One Night in Miami makes these men and their struggle come alive, and like a great song, the film — its notes, its rhythms, its power — resonates long after it ends.
