The marvelous actress Regina King directed One Night in Miami, a study of four American Black icons – Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Malcolm X and Sam Cooke – as they spend an evening together. The encounter is imagined, but the four guys did know each other.
Cooke was a star, Brown was a superstar, Malcolm was emerging as a national figure and Clay was about to become whatever is superior to “icon”.
The titular One Night is a unique one. Cassius Clay had just stunned the world by winning the world’s heavyweight boxing championship in an unthinkable upset over ferocious Sonny Liston. And he was about to shock America again by announcing his embrace of the Nation of Islam and his name change to Muhammad Ali.
The most interesting aspect is the emphasis on each man at a pivotal point in his career. Brown is at the top, recognized as an all-time great with nothing else to prove in pro football; the question is whether he can transition his fame into a movie career and other pursuits. Malcolm is about to move away from the leadership of the Nation of Islam and into a new level of public thought-leading. Cooke has been at the top, but his career arc may be descending. And, of course, Clay is seven days from becoming Muhammad Ali; enough said there. And none of them know that Malcolm and Cooke will be murdered within three years.
Of course, all four were faced with struggling against American racism – systemic and personal, flagrant and subtle. King’s unflinching eye introduces the particular ingrown racism of the 1960’s South with a gut punch of a scene, when Jim Brown visits a white acquaintance from his youth, played by Beau Bridges.
One Night in Miami is well-acted. Clay is played by Eli Goree, Malcolm by Kingsley Ben-Adir, Brown by Aldis Hodge and Cooke by Leslie Odom, Jr.
One Night in Miami is more intellectually interesting than enthralling. This is very talkie, however, and feels too much like a play to be excellent cinema.
I screened One Night in Miami at the 2020 Mill Valley Film Festival. You will be able to stream it on Amazon on Christmas Day.