Don’t believe the hype, actress-turned-director Regina King isn’t, all of a sudden, some seasoned director who delivered a “great” movie during the fall festival season. No, her “One Night in Miami” actually deserves to be called the most overpraised movie of 2020.
Starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr, “One Night in Miami,” is a fictionalized account of a 1964 meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. What if .. on February 25th, 1964, after 22-year-old Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston in Florida to become the world heavyweight boxing champion, a post-celebration with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown, all close friends at the time, would have happened. So it goes, all of them were actually there in Miami that night. This plausible scenario is glamorized to full-effect by King in her debut film.
King takes one of the buzziest storylines imaginable and turns it into a total dud. You wouldn’t know that by the ludicrous rave reviews. I mean, a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes?! Although well-intentioned, I was never enthralled by “One Night in Miami” when I saw it at this past September’s Toronto International Film Festival. The first hour is a real slog to get through and once the thick of the action hits, specifically, the hour-long hotel room conversation, it never truly lands the kind of punch it strives for. The result could have been much more enthralling. Instead, it felt like an ultra-safe, and slick, not to mention a caricature-filled, TV movie.
“One Night in Miami” is set to arrive in select theaters on December 25 before making its way to Amazon Prime Video on January 15. You can watch the new trailer below.
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