Review: ‘One Night in Miami’
Survival means different things to different people. For some, survival is about avoiding death, forcing themselves through the heat of the higher powers, and then bending into invisibility. For others, survival involves pushing back against the terms of their very existence until they have the upper hand (or at least a level playing field), even if it means losing their lives in the process. The quest for survival is a complex one, a journey of calculated motions that could either make or break you. But no matter what path is taken, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone come out the other side unscathed.
Regina King’s ‘One Night in Miami’ then – the actor-turned-director’s astonishing feature directorial debut – is the epitomy of what survival means for four Black men in the height of tensions at the hands of a brutal system, and how they individually approach the journey. The twist, however, is that these aren’t your average Black men — these are men of great influence and reach; men that inspire people today as much as they did in 1964. Holed up in one room for a single night, Muslim minister Malcolm X; singer-songwriter Sam Cooke; professional boxer Cassius Clay, and NFL footballer Jim Brown tackle their principles of survival in long stretches of open conversation and intense confrontations that build into a powerful story. Based on Kemp Powers’ play of the same name (with a screenplay adapted by Powers himself), ‘One Night in Miami’ is a meticulous retrospection on a pivotal moment in the lives of these Black American icons that shapes the way we view them today.
On February 25, 1964, Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston and is crowned the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Clay and his four friends retreat to the Hampton House Motel to celebrate the win. Shortly after emerging from the motel room, Clay announces to reporters that he would be joining Malcolm X in the Nation of Islam, donning the name Cassius X. One Night in Miami takes place largely in the motel room, imagining the sequence of private events that sparked dramatic changes in the trajectory of all their lives. But King’s movie is not to be confused for historical revisionism; it’s an exercise in paying homage to the things we know, by filling the blank spaces of what must’ve been.
What starts out as a night of victory for these four friends slowly descends into an exploration of pain, revealing the deep truth that Black people’s wins are constantly marred and undercut by a system conditioned to defy their successes. Powers’ script gives room to each man to make sense of his own feelings and internal battles, externalizing it through thought-provoking dialogue that gives intimate weight to public moments we only know on the surface. Malcolm X’s departure from the Nation of Islam, Cassius Clay’s conversion to it, as well as Jim Brown’s turn into acting are public moments that serve as the foundational basis for poignant inward rumination.
And none of that would work without the prowess of the four men that Regina King puts on screen, each one more dynamic than the next: as Cassius Clay, Eli Goree portrays the human version of a blank slate upon which the ideas of all the other characters bounce off of. He’s innocent and energetic, all the while displaying a wisdom beyond his age. As he questions his reasons for joining the Nation of Islam amidst his new-found secular success, his convictions are modeled and remodeled against the ideologies of the other men, whose ideological resolve threaten to displace Clay as much as their friendship. And as Jim Brown, Aldis Hodge is the film’s voice of reason. His version is quiet and reflective, grounding the others each time they tend towards aggression. Although playing a slightly underdeveloped character, Hodge brings brilliant wit to the role, providing perfectly-timed comedic breaks to the heavier conversations that the movie highlights.
But the majority of the burden rests upon Kingsley Ben-Adir and Leslie Odom Jr, who battle for the stage to assert their own self-proclaimed superior principle over the others. As Malcolm X, Kingsley Ben-Adir is the one end of the survival spectrum, pushing back till his last drop of blood. Ben-Adir is tame, though commanding; holding his ground at every turn, though never afraid to be tender and vulnerable. On the other end, Odom Jr.’s Sam Brown hides behind the scenes, revolting in silence even as everyone around him shouts in anger. In a pivotal rooftop sequence brimming with emotional and even physical divergence, Malcolm fulminates against Sam for not using his talents as a singer to bring light to the struggles of the Black community, calling to question whether political or economic power is the right pathway to the liberation of Black people.
Every question raised by Kemp Powers’ alluring script is made rhetorical by King’s adroit direction, which favors thematic reverberation over neat, close-ended plot conclusions, making sure to deeply resonate in ways that last longer than the film’s runtime. Though the script slowly becomes heavy handed, leaving no room for the characters to exist outside their roles as civil rights pawns, King never wavers on her vision until every bit of flesh is torn off each man, separating them from their celebrity, and transforming them into the Black men we see in our homes and on the streets.
Ultimately, in light of the civil rights protests seeking to challenge systemic racism and violence against Black people that’s currently enveloping the world, ‘One Night in Miami’ feels like a prophetic mirror of a story from decades ago – a reflection of the past as much a prayer for the future. The fight for liberation today is just the same as the one from 1964, encapsulated in a brief monologue by Goree’s Cassius Clay: as Black people, having power simply means living in “a world where we’re safe to be ourselves – to look like we want, to think like we want, without having to answer to anybody.” How we come about said power seems to be a constant cause of dispute (the world of economics and politics as they’re currently exist are set up never seem to favor Black people), yet looking to the past can bring us comfort and a pathway for the future. ‘One Night in Miami’ is a brilliant work of fiction, one that exists in the most empowering crevices of history, and one that’s built to outlive even the present. – Benjamin Akpan
Rating: 4/5
One Night in Miami debuted at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released by Amazon Studios soon.