The icebreaking prompt of “if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive” is barely a step above “tell us something interesting about yourself,” but One Night in Miami elevates that tired setup into one of the most hotly-anticipated films of the year. What would happen if you put four of the most iconic and influential Black personalities of the last century in a room at the height of their cultural dominance? The result is an enthralling, entertaining, and challenging meditation on race and the line between successful compromise and surrendering your principles.
Screenwriter Kemp Powers adapts his own one-act play, presenting a fictionalized conversation between political revolutionary Malcolm X, boxing icon Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammed Ali), NFL star Jim Brown, and acclaimed singer/songwriter Sam Cooke, on the night of Clay’s stunning ascent to worldwide boxing champion in 1964.
Stage plays in particular live or die by their performances, and the cast assembled for One Night is a real flex. There isn’t a weak link among them. Their performances are more than copying the cadences and mannerisms of icons, focusing instead on successfully reproducing the spirit of each larger-than-life personality. Eli Goree captures the youthful energy and playful arrogance of 22-year-old Cassius Clay. Aldis Hodge, introduced in a true gut-punch of a scene, portrays Jim Brown’s complex mixture of calm maturity and an anxious desire for reinvention. Kingsley Ben-Adir is calculated and cool as Malcolm X, who enters the night with a clear agenda and is the instigator for most of the verbal conflict in the film. Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke is the standout, if there is one. I’ve got two ears and a heart, so of course I know his work in Hamilton, but my first time watching the musical was the live recording dropped on Disney+ last summer. Even surrounded by the stellar Hamilton cast, Odom’s screen presence was striking. In the most cliched and romanticized sense of the word, he is simply a star—the type of performer that demands attention and draws the audience’s focus, regardless of where he is in the scene.
Ben-Adir’s Malcolm has Odom’s Cooke in his crosshairs, and draws everyone (and the audience) into an extended conversation of conflicting ideals and goals, challenging them to consider whether they are adequately using their celebrity to contribute to real progress. Malcolm thinks Cooke is selling out and pandering with his career; Cooke argues his career choices are doing more than Malcolm to further opportunities and inspiration for the Black community. Who is right? When does pragmatic compromise lead to one concession too many? The film asks complicated questions with no easy answers.
Guiding this conversation to the screen is Regina King, making her directorial debut after star-making turns in HBO’s Watchmen and The Leftovers. Translating a story from one medium to another is difficult and stage limitations can make for awkward screen mechanics or pacing issues. Some concessions must be made by the audience to account for this. (For example, as the argument escalates, Cooke and Clay clearly want to leave the one-room setting of the hotel. The longer they stay in spite of their discomfort, the more contrived it can feel.) Fortunately for us, we’re in the hands of a director who expertly plays to the strengths of both mediums. Dialogue and character are prioritized, and King takes advantage of the cinematic flourishes available by finessing the structure of the play, adding in prologues, detours, and codas—ensuring a smooth stage-to-screen transition.
King confidently uses the tools at her disposal—an engaging script by Powers and powerhouse performances by our co-leads—to deliver a philosophical examination that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
One Night in Miami is available to stream on Amazon Prime. It runs 114 minutes and is rated R for language throughout.
