Set on the night of February 25, 1964, "One Night in Miami" follows a young, brash Cassius Clay as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center the new Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. Against all odds, he defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the sports world. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay - unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws - spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami's African... (Full plot summary below)
FREE with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Set on the night of February 25, 1964, "One Night in Miami" follows a young, brash Cassius Clay as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center the new Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. Against all odds, he defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the sports world. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay - unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws - spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami's African American Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his closest friends: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. During this historic evening, these icons, who each were the very representation of the Pre-Black Power Movement and felt the social pressure their cross-over celebrity brought, shared their thoughts with each other about their responsibilities as influencers, standing up, defending their rights and moving the country forward to equality and empowerment for all black people. The next morning, the four men emerge determined to define a new world for themselves and their community.
Leave your thoughts about One Night in Miami....
| IGNKristy PuchkoKemp Powers' thoughtful script gives us an insight into what might have been going on behind the sports and entertainment performances that awed us, and in doing so urges us to look at what's still going on now. Director Regina King's cast delivers some of the best performances of the year, unveiling the hidden pain of public figures. Through a keen focus and confident flow, she unfurls their struggles in a poignant display to show how they live on today. |
| Consequence of SoundJoe LipsettRegina King’s directorial debut is a quiet and contemplative film, filled with powerful mediations on race, responsibility, and revolution that are both timely and entertaining |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOne Night in Miami is filled with profoundly impactful exchanges, and a sprinkling of edgy, comedic observations. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrTo be successful and Black in America, this movie says, is to tell your own story even as you live it, in the pages of a book or the grooves of a record, in the end zone of a football field or the battleground of a boxing ring. To understand the weight and importance of having to be an example. And to understand when being an example just isn’t enough. |
| The New York TimesA.O. ScottMalcolm’s manner can be didactic, but One Night in Miami is anything but. Instead of a group biopic or a ready-made costume drama, it’s an intellectual thriller, crackling with the energy of ideas and emotions as they happen. |
| EmpireEllen E JonesThis feels like history-in-the-making, as both a fresh insight into the interior lives of historical figures and a snapshot of a future filmmaking great just getting started. |
| ABCPeter TraversDebuting director Regina King ignites sparks by casting four dynamite actors as 1964 civil-rights icons—Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and an Oscar worthy Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke—and letting them rip about being Black in America. |
| Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsThe stakes are important, but the film is carried by a stream of small, acutely observed moments, and the way these actors move, converse, relate and enliven Powers’s best dialogue. It’s a case of getting the best of both worlds: a strong, mellow film of urgent, historically prescient ideas expanded from a juicy theatrical premise. |
| The Associated PressJake CoyleThe movie’s gathering momentum, even as it grows more claustrophobic, is owed to a few things. It comes from Ben-Adir’s artfully calibrated performance as Malcolm — here more consumed with doubt, worry and self-awareness than the usual firebrand portrayal. It comes from Odom’s deft sense of Cooke. And it comes from King’s remarkable elegance as a director. |
| Austin ChronicleSelome HailuThe warmth of the film’s gaze has managed to take the political and make it all personal. It’s hard not to feel just as affected by the way these men have moved each other. |
