One Night in Miami

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ½

On the night of February 25, 1964, four men spent an evening together talking. They were Malcom X, Joe Brown, Mohammed Ali (then Cassius Clay), and Sam Cooke. Clay had just beaten Sonny Listen earlier that night to become the heavy-weight campion. He was 22 years old. Those, as they say, are the facts. What happened in that motel room, and what those men actually said to each other is nothing more than speculation. Two of them were dead within a year; only Joe Brown is still alive, and he isn’t saying much. The movie starts with scenes of each of them experiencing a failure, humiliation, or otherwise a moment of self-doubt and anxiety. It ends with the four of them each making a major shift in his life, as though this meeting changed them all. Perhaps. But, what we see here on screen is not what happened, it comes from the fertile imagination of Kemp Powers, who wrote both the original play and the screenplay. That little caveat aside, what we have is a powerful and moving film about four men on the cusp of history. During the course of this long night, these men banter back and forth with each other, sometimes joking, sometimes insulting, and sometimes outright attacking each other. It feels powerfully intimate, and I could not help but feel like I was eavesdropping on a private conversation. All four actors do a fantastic job in their roles displaying anger, sadness, wounded pride, and a deep easy affection for each. It’s tempting to showcase Eli Goree’s performance as Clay because it was so showy; but Clay was showy and Goree really manages to get his body language, facial expressions, and vocal cadence down; it’s a masterful performance. However, the real star of this film is Kingsley Ben-Adir. His Malcom X was the key character around which the entire film gravitated. He did a wonderful job of displaying X’s complex set of emotions. He clearly loves these men, but he also has an agenda or two. This tension is what drives all the fights and moves the story forward. Ben-Adir also does a fine job of expressing a sort of bone-weariness, deep sadness, and fear that pervades everything X does. It’s always there, even when he’s laughing. That was the performance that really brought this film to life for me. This was just a gorgeous, moving story about complex men in a complicated relationship with each other. Who cares if it actually happened? Because it is definitely true.