STING LIKE A BEE // A FILM REVIEW OF "ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI"
(Note: This review first appeared on September 19th 2020 as part of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival Coverage).
Regina King has set fire to the screen time and time again as an actress, winning an Oscar and an Emmy for doing so. So it seems only fitting that she now heads behind the camera, making her triumphant directorial debut with ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, a fantastic and full of life adaptation of Kemp Powers' vibrant play (he himself wrote the adaptation). The story is set arounds four legends and one legendary night: Feb 25th, 1964. Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) has just beat his opponent Sonny Liston (the first of two fights against Liston that he would win). To celebrate, he gathered in a hotel room with his friends Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and...well, what happened in that room still remains a somewhat mystery. However, playwright Kemp Powers theorized what "might have been" in his 2013 play of the same name. Now, Regina King directs his words onto the screen with substantial power.
The men could not be more different. Malcolm X was paranoid that he was always being followed (which, often he was) and his behavior is much more subdued than the rest of the group. Sam Cooke is ready to have a good time, as is Jim Brown (though Brown has more reservations). Cassius Clay is thrilled and energized after his win but what occurs between the men in place of simply a party is a meeting of the minds and souls. They banter back and forth on the plight of the Black man in the 60's, of their place in society. They bicker about what actually constitutes as a "party," about the price of fame and what it's worth. They speak about racism and wonder out loud if they all are doing enough. It's a lot of powerful material, broken down between some of the most powerful Black men to walk this earth. The answers aren't easy, nor is the truth, but as the men fight, agree, yell and connect, we see four friends trying to make sense of this mess of a world while agreeing to keep on trying to make it better, and to make themselves better in the process.
King does an excellent job in keeping a fast and furious tone. The action is set mostly inside one hotel room, but King excels in finding interesting ways to set up shots, creating the tension in small places and brings out the best in this dynamic cast. All four men are brilliant. Goree feels so much like Cassius Clay that you may actually have to remind yourself that it isn't actually footage of the man himself. He plays it powerfully but also playfully, just as the real Clay did. Ben-Adir's Malcolm X is a stoic force. He's a man who truly wants every Black man to realize their value and that they must speak up, using their voice for change. At the same time, he demonstrates also how hard it was for Malcolm to sometimes connect with basic things (his idea of a party is a fridge of ice cream). Hodge is a fiery Jim Brown and an early scene, set at a white benefactors home (played by Beau Bridges), we sadly see just how little power even a famous Black man actually held in 1965. Rounding out the main cast, Odom Jr. brings a wave of energy, a soothing voice and dynamic power to his portrayal of Sam Cooke. He energetically fills the screen with busts of energy and showcases beautifully the discovery that he needed to "say more" in his music about the world around him. Powers adapts his own words perfectly and makes a dream team alongside King. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI may be fiction based on facts that happened years ago, but it feels as close to the truth as it can possibly be. It's a must-see in any decade.
GRADE: A