Malcolm X. Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown. Sam Cooke. 4 of the most famous and influential African Americans in the 1960s in the United States. Famous and popular for different cultural reasons. The 4 clearly knew of each other and probably interacted more than a few times with one another. Regina King distills those meetings down to a fictional, fateful night in February 1964. One Night in Miami, in one hotel room, King gives us a glimpse what conversations between those men must have been like when they met with one another. And by the end yes, like Sam Cooke says, you’ll probably want to let loose and party a little bit before getting back to the grind.
The 4 were in Miami that Feb 25 to watch then Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) fight Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship. Malcolm (Kingsley Ben-Adir) was probably most excited, knowing Clay was about to enter the nation of Islam imminently. The pair invite pop star Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and NFL star Brown (Aldis Hodge) back to Clay’s Miami hotel for an “afterparty.” But Malcolm’s version of that is vanilla ice cream and cultural discourse.
Regina King and Kemp Powers (he also wrote Soul; big year for that guy!) goal is to humanize the legends and icons of the black civil rights movement to make their hotel conversation work. The creative team know that our images of these 4 icons are formed by their amazing moments on television or new clippings or Youtube clips. Early on, King and Powers make a point to show these men at relative low points in their careers. This choice gives us an idea into their personalities on stage, but also gives us a peek at what they’re like when the cameras aren’t rolling, and they’re vulnerable and a little humiliated/embarrassed. This groundwork will pay dividends down the line, as the cultural facade erodes and the real person underneath comes to the fore.
And then we head to Ali’s Miami hotel, just after Cassius beats Sonny Liston to a pulp and becomes the next heavyweight champion. Kemp Powers’s script then kicks into high gear. These 4 men hold so much cultural power that they simply can’t converse with normal people about anything: someone will eventually get starstruck and ask for an autograph. So over the course of the night, the 4 men slowly drop their onscreen personas and just start chatting like normal men when it’s just them. The 4 actors do a great job making each icon different during these cultural conversations. Hodge makes Jim Brown the most secure: the glue guy, comfortable conversing with any of the 4 and able to code switch easily, happy to listen and comment instead of loudly preach. Goree’s Ali is the fun loving life of the party who feels a bit like a pawn in closed quarters with these men, unsure of his own direction and path forward at times. The brunt of the conflict arises from Sam Cooke vs. Malcolm X, at this point in time on opposite sides of the black political and cultural uprising in the Civil Rights era. Both men have solid points: Malcolm wants to expose the lies at the center of the current system in the US, and use all powerful black people like Cooke to use their platform to do the same. Cooke takes the long term approach, accumulating wealth and power behind the scenes, so he can help create generational wealth for the black community to fight on more equal footing later. Malcolm is pissed that Cooke doesn’t use his voice to help outline the African American struggle in the US, and Cooke points out how Malcolm is incapable of code switching, and poisoned by the paranoia of his own harrowing experiences. There are no easy answers for everyone here, but the most important thing that would have happened at these meetings is the gain in perspective and insight for each of the 4 men. This all culminates into a montage you’ll know is coming if you know Sam Cooke’s famous songs, which King uses as the exclamation point to her extraordinary film.
I’m sure that Miami has had its fare share of memorable nights. Even though this one never really happened, I kinda want to add it to the list because of how awesome Regina King’s movie is. King couldn’t be a more perfect director for this story either, as she has picked up the mantle left by these men and then some. I look forward to her eventual big night in Miami with Ta-Nahesi Coates, Stacey Abrams, and LeBron James. I really want to be at that party!