Jack Aling’s review published on Letterboxd:
Never Be Too Busy for Some Added Perspective.
Without a doubt, some of the best casting of the year, One Night in Miami… follows the events of a pivotal night in the lives of four black American icons.
Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown meet after Clay's latest victory but rather than celebrate they clash as their opposing ideologies create a heated discussion that will change the course of their all of their lives.
For a bottle film like this, it would've been very difficult to escape its stage show roots. Kemp Powers' script is so dialogue rich that it would have been a disservice to do it any other way. This does hinder the film as it limits the filmmaking that surrounds it. Regina King does a great job of bringing this unique story to the screen but there is nothing necessarily special about the direction. Given the heaviness of the script and the single location, the majority of the film is played out in shot/reverse shot.
The entire cast knocks it out of the park, it's hard to pick out a stand-out role - they all get a chance throughout the film to embody the powerful figures they play. I hope they all get the award recognition they deserve.
A captivating and important film that demands your attention, I hope gets the recognition it deserves when it goes to an online streaming audience.
LFF: Film 20
London Film Festival 2020: Ranked.
