Delayed Reaction: One Night In Miami

Premise: Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke all have a discussion in a hotel room one night.

 

I was worried. I've had to talk myself into appreciating movie like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Fences while I devoured something like Glengarry Glen Ross. I worried that I was a hypocrite, talking about how much I loved movies about "putting a bunch of characters in a room together" then not liking the ones I watched about the black experience. Did a have an unrecognized blind spot? It's really hard to distinguish bias from taste. I try to be honest with myself and not like things just because I should, but at the same time, I would hate to be in a place where I accept that I just don't like the "black versions" of movies.

 

Obviously, my concern is a little excessive. My response to one or three movies isn't going to make me a covert racist or something, but I put a lot of pressure on One Night in Miami. And it turns out that movie works well under pressure. I really dug this movie.

 

This also helped me put a finger on why I have trouble with stuff like the August Wilson adaptations. Those movies feel like people delivering speeches to each other. It's like a series of solos rather than a symphony. The reason I love movies like One Night in Miami or the Before series is because they are about people having actual discussions. The actors are able to go small. Some of my favorite moments in One Night in Miami are when characters wilt.

 

This is a movie about big characters. Malcolm X, Cassius Clay (pre-Ali), Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke are all huge figures and this movie successfully brings them to a human scale. It helps that the movie begins with them all taking hits. Ali literally. The others figuratively - Malcolm's uncertain situation with the Nation of Islam, Cooke with a troubled show at the Copa Cabana, and Brown stunned by a "no n*ggers in the house" rule. That last one really struck me. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop in that scene, but I overlooked that option entirely. Once the men all get in the hotel room, it turns into a really fascinating discussion that touches on each of their careers as well as numerous topics of the day.

 

The whole cast is great, but Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X stood out the most for me (and it sounds like he's going to get the biggest Oscar push). Malcolm is the figure with the most divisive reputation and my god does this movie humanize him. Even the great Spike Lee movie can't help but mythologize him. One Night in Miami has him dropping all fronts. He's a nerd who likes cameras and only has vanilla ice cream in his hotel room. Yet, it's also clear why he's such a powerful leader in the community. Ben-Adir shows both sides in a very natural way. In a lot of ways, I preferred this over Denzel's Malcolm X. Aldis Hodge (Brown), Leslie Odom Jr. (Cooke), Eli Goree (Ali), and all the other non-famous or made-up people are really good too.

 

This isn't purely a "people trapped in a room for two hours" movie either. It moves around a bit. It starts with characters in different locations, even Ali in a boxing match. They go to the store or roof of the hotel at different points. While this is clearly based on a play, Regina King (in an impressive directorial debut) manages to open it up without taking away the strength of these characters simply talking to each other.

 

Depending on how you want to define it, this is quickly either my favorite movie of 2021 or top 5 of 2020.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend