One Night in Miami (2021) Review
One Night in Miami is an instant class that shows the four cornerstones of mega successful black men in 1964. To be given the viewpoint of what feels like only happens once in a generation, Regina King, Kemp Powers and Tami Reiker recreate the unimaginable. This trio did an amazing job where you feel like a fly on the wall watching four friends who haven’t seen each other in ten years reminisce about life. There is a part in this movie where you have three icons getting their picture taken by who some would argue is one of the biggest icons of all time, he’s doing it as a hobby. It feels like these men grew up with each other.
Overall, this film is a must watch. This deserves multiple Oscar nominations including screenplay adaptation, best acting, cinematography and directing. Listen to my full review here.
My rating – 96%
SPOILERS BELOW
My favorite line in the movie is when Sam and Cassius are in the car, and Cassius says “power just means a world where we’re safe to be ourselves”. Being able to witness everybody’s own interpretation and their use of power in this film by the use of monologues is inspiring. King and Powers are able to portray brutal honesty and understanding through a variety of delivery techniques from fist fights to monologues or from current events to flashbacks.
The movie begins with us watching actual punches being thrown, then all of a sudden, you get into this hotel room and now words are being thrown around like daggers. An iconic debate is taking place, as our protagonists go up to bat over their own beliefs and understandings of life.
How do you properly utilize money, power and success?
I hope this film inspires other filmmakers to adapt stories based on real life icons hanging out with each other. How great would it be if we had a film based on the twenty-minute scene in Walk the Line where Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two go on tour alongside icons like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. How amazing would it be to get a day-in-the-life with multiple monumental icons within their industry.
King is able to display this fraternal bond, in a sense where nobody else can understand what they all go through. Their experiences might not be exactly the same, but they get it. Other people don’t and won’t. Being able to see conversations like between Malcolm and Sam, these conversations only exist because of their stature. All of these men are surrounded by ‘yes men’ all day and for once their ideologies are being challenged and they have to not defend themselves to the masses, but to individuals who they highly respect and who want to try and understand one another.
