Taking place over the span of one night, 4 men: Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali), Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke are in a hotel room after Clay’s surprise win over Sonny Liston in February 1964. Stuck in this hotel the 4 come together and start to have discussions ranging from their personal life’s all the way to what they did for the black movement. Being based on a stage play the film is very dialog driving rather than being plot focused and my biggest issue with the film is that I felt the cinematography and the soundtrack wasn’t the greatest. The soundtrack felt like it was so deep in the background that I didn’t even notice it at times and the cinematography was basic with a couple of nice whip pans being used for some effective edits. But being honest you don’t watch this film for the cinematography or its soundtrack you watch it for it’s acting and I’m happy to say that the acting is simple flawless.
Every single performance was great but to me the true standouts were Kingsley Ben-Adir (Peaky Blinders) as Malcom X and Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton, Murder on the Orient Express) as Sam Cooke their back and forth’s are just incredible and honestly steel the show. Speaking of back and forth’s I feel like its important to talk about the dialogs subject matter, which for a film that takes place in the 60’s still feels overly relevant even today and is shockingly very impactful and brings up the idea of how far has the battle against racism really moved on from the 60’s. What makes the film work so well is Regina Kings solid directing and this being her first feature I’m honestly excited to see what she does next. One Night in Miami is a great film that I honestly can not wait to see again either in cinemas or when it arrives on Amazon Prime. I highly recommend this film to everyone as it is honestly a must see.
