OVP: One Night in Miami (2020)

Film: One Night in Miami (2020)
Stars: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom, Jr.
Director: Regina King
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Supporting Actor-Leslie Odom, Jr., Adapted Screenplay, Original Song-"Speak Now")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

One of my favorite sub-genres of movies is the "story that takes place in a short time."  There's something magnetic & special about that sense of urgency, that we're not going to get a profound change in where these characters are from their current state, but we have to trust that they will find their own destiny.  That's at the heart of Regina King's directorial debut One Night in Miami, adapted from the well-regarded stage play by Kemp Powers.  The two put together four men at arguably the peak of their fame in 1964, and give us a fascinating discussion of what it's like living in such an intense spotlight, particularly as black men trying to make a difference in the Civil Rights Era, standing up to a world with no guarantee that what they're giving up will matter in their cause.  The film talks about money, race, religion, but it's heart is trying to find the humanity behind four men who would become legends, and in two cases, end that legend far before their time.

(Spoilers Ahead) We find four men in a hotel room in Miami the night that Muhammad Ali (Goree) defeated Sonny Liston to become the world champion.  In the film this is on the precipice of Ali announcing his conversion to Islam, and with that, changing his name to Ali from the original Cassius Clay.  He is being encouraged in this transformation by Malcolm X (Ben-Adir), who is having his own struggles with the Nation of Islam, particularly his disagreements with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad whose affairs run counter to Malcolm's belief system.  They are joined by Sam Cooke (Odom), who has just had an unsuccessful night at the Copacabana, and Jim Brown (Hodge), who is considering giving up a monumental career in football for the more lucrative (if not as legendary) prospects of Hollywood.  The four men, seemingly longtime friends, initially quarrel, particularly Cooke & Malcolm X, about the Civil Rights movement, and how they see their role in it, with Malcolm wanting Cooke to become more involved (he feels that Cooke's music placates to white audiences), while Cooke wants Malcolm X to admit he has less to give up, since he's the only one of the three without a successful career.  The film ends with all of the men going on from that night to moments-of-consequence in their careers; Ali changes his name & religion publicly, Brown does become a film star (choosing movies over football), Cooke releases his magnum opus "A Change Gonna Come" shortly before his death, and Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam, which would later lead to his assassination.

The movie, it should be worth noting, is fictional.  While the moments leading up to the night & the moments after it are real (these are all the decisions these men made in their lives), the conversations between the four men are fake.  This is something that's become incredibly popular in theater in the past twenty years, but it's rarely been brought to the screen, which might leave audiences confused if they're not aware this never happened.  Still, that doesn't take away the power of the film (fiction, I believe, generally makes better cinema than reality), and the movie is the rare stage translation that overall works.  You see the strings of the original production there (the limited sets, the way that going outside of the hotel room always feels a bit of a downer), but by-and-large King crafts a fascinating conversation between the four men that feels cinematic, never like it's just a filmed play.

The film's central quartet are not created equally in terms of their characterizations, though.  Odom is the most famous of the bunch considering his Hamilton connections, and is probably the Oscar nominee of the quartet if one of them makes it thanks to his fame & Tony Award, but I'd wager he's the least of the four when he's onscreen, his character's arch always feeling forced, too "ACTING" for my tastes.  Ben-Adir is excellent, though, as Malcolm X, a man of incredible principle who is having a moment of doubt and of reality (he is, essentially, risking his family becoming destitute if he leaves the Nation of Islam).  For you category fraud sticklers, he's probably a lead in this film, but he's also the best part of the movie, even if he's saddled with Odom as a screen partner for most of it.  The other two actors are fun, though not in the same vein.  Goree is having a blast as the pretty boy boxer (who is desperately in love with himself), and is relief from the drama, while Hodge (who was breathtaking last year in Clemency) adds a depth to Jim Brown that the script doesn't really have (the movie doesn't give Brown the same sort of "big" moments the other three men receive, and as a result he'd be easy to forget if Hodge didn't infuse him with a sense of decision).

I'm going to go with a high three-stars here.  I feel like Odom's performance is mismanaged, and as he's the emotional crux of the final act (rather than Malcolm X, who should be based on what we've seen before), the ending doesn't have the power it should.  But King comes out-the-gate with a mesmerizing directorial debut, and the film has several strong performances from up-and-comers; I'm hopeful that we will soon see more from all of them (and that King, one of our best working actors, doesn't abandon the front-of-the-camera even though she has an obvious gift behind it).