One Night in Miami

 

One Night in Miami is the Golden Globe nominated drama, with a screenplay by Kemp Powers, which was based on his stage play of the same name. It focuses on a fictitious meeting between Cassius Clay (before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali), Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Malcolm X during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. Set in February 1964, after Clay won the heavy weight title in a surprise win over champion Sonny Liston, the four meet in a hotel to discuses each of their roles in the Civil Rights movement.

The direction by Regina King earned her a well-deserved best director nomination. The script was well written, the story was interesting and for a movie being completely driven by dialogue, it was still very entertaining.

The acting from the entire cast was Oscar worthy. They had great chemistry together and played well off of one another. British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir and Eli Goree were new faces for me and each of them did and amazing job brining their characters to life. Ben-Adir’s portrayal of Malcolm X was on the level of Denzel Washington. His mannerisms, his level of calm and the dictation in his voice was masterful. Goree's Cassius Clay was fun and likable in the way that Clay portrayed himself in real life. His delivery of his lines, especially the corny jokes, mixed his tone of voice, were spot on. I’ve seen Aldis Hodge in a few things now. I like the range of projects that he’s chosen and thought that his portal of Jim Brown was good. For me the one that stole the show was Hamilton’s, Leslie Odom Jr., who finally got to be “in the room where it happens” (Hamilton joke). He embodied Sam Cooke and also sang live, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

This was a very unique and believable idea. Even though there is no proof of this meeting ever happening, the fact that each of them were seen in Miami at Clay’s fight, and made major steps in pushing the Civil Rights movement forward, after this day, there has always been speculation that this meeting may have actually happened. I think that this movie brings a strong case for this idea and was well worth the watch.