Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival September 7, reviews are in for the movie adaptation of Kemp Powers’ One Night in Miami. Making her directorial debut is Oscar winner Regina King, with Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr. playing Sam Cooke—one of the four up-and-coming Black celebrities in 1964 who meet in a hotel on the night Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston to win the world heavyweight championship.
The cast also features Eli Goree as Clay, Kinglsey Ben-Adir as Malcom X, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown. Rounding out the cast are Lance Reddick, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Michael Imperioli, Jerome A. Wilson, Beau Bridges, and Aaron D. Alexander.
Powers is the film's screenwriter, adapting her own Olivier-nominated work, which premiered at Los Angeles' Rogue Machine Theatre in 2013 and then played at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
Read the reviews below.
The Daily Beast (Barbie Latza Nadeau)
The Guardian (Jonathan Romney)
The Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney)
Playbill will continue to update this article as reviews come in.
A wide release date has yet to be announced, but One Night in Miami is slated to debut in North America at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Amazon already picking up the rights for distribution.
