Review: One Night in Miami

Another one that I'm not sure whether to recommend. It's an account of a fictional evening following Cassius Clay's victory over Sonny Liston in 1964, shared with other icons of the day: Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Malcolm X. 

In the film, they spent most of the evening in a motel room. The boxing champ, the American footballer, the singer and the activist. Guess which one was the least fun, interrupting the celebrations with his ranting? Malcolm X seemed almost schizophrenic, jumping from rants to normality throughout the film. 

Being British, I'd never heard of Jim Brown who retired from (American) football to become a reasonably successful actor (the character was played by Aldis Hodge who is known for such roles as Hardison in Leverage) but he seemed like a nice, level-headed guy, the best of the bunch. Sadly, Jim Brown died earlier this year. 

And who hasn't heard of Sam Cooke? A great voice, he released many songs during his short time on earth (shot and killed a few months after the film was set), including: You Send Me, Wonderful World, I Can See Clearly Now, Cupid, Twistin' the Night Away, Another Saturday Night, Change Gonna Come... and more. 

Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali shortly after his rise to fame, encouraged to change religion by Malcolm X.  Most(?) people alive today will know who he is, a much loved character who sufferered from Parkinson's Disease in later life. I don't know much about Malcolm X so I don't feel that I have the right to comment here.

The film is an Amazon original. Here's the trailer:

Summary: a well-acted and well made film with light moments and humour. Personally, I am always  uncomfortable with stories from the 1960s/70s that comprise some elements of ugly truth, such as racism, sexism and other prejudices.