Okay, I loved this movie. While it’s up for debate whether it’s the outright best of the Oscar movies I’ve seen so far, I’d say it is to date my favorite. I have a feeling it’s going to wind up making a strong showing when I do my pre-Oscars Personal Nominations write-up.
On the night that Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion of the world, he gathers in a motel room with Malcolm X, Jim Thorpe, and Sam Cooke. Four young Black men at the top of their game in different arenas, facing the same struggles that they approach from different lenses. The night of Cassius’s victory lurches between celebratory and confrontational, and the four men relate to one another at times with solidarity, at others with accusation, at others with tough love.
Like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, this is based on a play and definitely feels like it. It was adapted for the screen by Kemp Powers, the original playwright of the piece, and he scored an Adapted Screenplay nomination for his work here. It’s easy to see why. The dialogue is stirring, the interplay masterful. I love watching these four young giants debate the issues of the day and how best to approach them. Even though the majority of the film is contained within the four walls of Malcolm’s modest hotel room (where, to Sam and Jim’s chagrin, he’s furnished a victory celebration with vanilla ice cream and no alcohol,) director Regina King keeps it from feeling stuck there. Because the relationships are so charged and the dynamics between the four men shift repeatedly over the course of the film, the setting never limits the story.
One thing I have to mention is that I really appreciate how much humor we get here. Any film set during the Civil Rights era is bound to get heavy, and that goes double for any Oscar film on the subject, but One Night in Miami… isn’t All Struggle All the Time. Each of the men is allowed to be a full person: sometimes solemn, sometimes angry, sometimes joyful, sometimes hopeful, sometimes ashamed, sometimes defensive, sometimes playful, sometimes lost. That depth is reflected in all four characters, and the way they relate to one another is constantly shifting. There are plenty of powerful scenes and meaty For Your Consideration speeches, but there are also scenes of four friends simply shooting the breeze and teasing one another.
I also really like that the film takes full advantage of the fact that there are four very different men in this motel room whose experiences share certain commonalities within their differences. In addition to letting us explore the issues the film addresses from multiple angles, it also means showcasing a lot of different relationships in a fairly short amount of time. Malcolm and Sam’s ideological differences drive a good deal of the story, and so theirs is the most prominent relationship in the film, but there’s at least one fantastic scene of every possible character combination. Jim asking Malcolm what it is with light-skinned activists. Malcolm gently guiding Cassius through a prayer. Cassius telling Sam that, as young, gifted Black celebrities, they’re the only people who can possibly understand where one another are coming from. Sam admitting to Jim how he felt the first time he heard “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Jim wondering whether Cassius is really ready to become Muslim. And that’s to say nothing of the scenes that feature all four of them together.
All four of the main actors are turning in wonderful work here. Leslie Odom Jr., as Sam Cooke, seems to be the film’s appointed representative, since his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor is the latest in a string he’s received throughout awards season. He’s very good here, and Sam comes at a lot of the topics debated in the film from a different angle but never allows himself to be discounted or sold short. He goes toe to toe with Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Malcolm, who carries himself with the weight and gravity of the young revolutionary while still allowing him to be a person first and foremost, not a figure. Eli Goree radiates cocksure joy and youthful bravado as Cassius, a real pleasure to watch. (Side note: I spent the entire film knowing that I’d seen him somewhere before, but I couldn’t place him. I was a little bowled over when I realized he played Mad Dog, a recurring character on Riverdale!) Aldis Hodge, who I remember from Straight Outta Compton, turns in a really effective, understated performance as Jim. I get why the awards attention has converged around Odom, but really, all of them are deserving of wild amounts of praise for what they do here.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements, language (including the N-word,) drinking/smoking, sexual references, and violence.
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