“One Night in Miami” is a great fly-on-the-wall experience. The viewer feels as if he’s eavesdropping – present, but not seen. Listening to all sides, but taking none.
Here’s what we know:
In February of 1964, Cassius Clay (soon to become Muhammad Ali), Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Running Back Jim Brown met up a Miami motel room — Clay had defeated reigning heavyweight champ Sonny Liston just the night before, but each man was at the top of his respective game. And yet, they endured the kinds of indignities that no amount of success could alter: the color of their skin.
Here’s what we do not know:
What did they talk about? It’s true that the four shared many things in common, but we also know that they shared differing views of religion, politics, and business, among others.
That’s where playwright Kemp Powers comes in. Inside the motel walls are strictly a product of his imagination, though every word, every spat and interaction seems completely plausible.
Powers wrote One Night in Miami as a stage play in 2013, and the film adaptation, which he also wrote, also feels somewhat like a one act play. That’s not a bad thing. It just means that the dialog has to be engaging, challenging, infuriating and funny enough for us to stay seated in that motel room with them.
Director Regina King, the Oscar-winning actress, stays behind the camera, making the film feel intimate, but never claustrophobic. King does start the film outside the room and leaves it a time or two, and those scenes feature drop-dead gorgeous art direction, not to mention the angelic voice of Leslie Odom Jr (original Aaron Burr from Hamilton) sounding very much like Sam Cooke. But mostly, you are that lucky fly on that motel wall.
The other actors also capture the essence of their real-life characters without resorting to impersonations. Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X and Eli Goree as Cassius Clay are particularly adept.
King has made an elegant, tight movie that makes points without feeling overly preachy. Someday the Oscars will learn what the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Critics’ Choice Awards have already figured out: the idea of an award for Best Ensemble makes so much sense. This film would be a top contender for such an award.
Review by Kyle Osborne| One Night in Miami | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars |On Amazon Prime and Limited Theaters
