One Night in Miami brings 4 real-life friends (Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X) together for a fictional gathering at a critical point in time. Clay has just beaten Sonny Liston to become World Heavyweight Champion, Brown is at a pivotal point in his NFL career, Cooke is trying to win over white audiences with his music, and Malcolm X is struggling in his role at the Nation of Islam, worried about enemies both inside and outside the organization. The 4 friends discuss issues of race and power, mostly in a modest hotel room in Miami in 1964. We see each of their different approaches to the issue, and the pros and cons of each.
The pace of the film is very slow, and for most of it there is very little action. That made it tedious at times, but the message and the relevance to our own time was still powerful. Eli Goree's performance as a playful and at times childish Cassius Clay stood out for me.
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