"One Night in Miami" is an acting showcase
#113: "One Night in Miami," "Locked Down," "Tiger," "Malcolm X," "Nocturnal Animals"
Edition 113:
Hey movie lovers!
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In this week’s newsletter: We’re diving deep into the acting showcase that is One Night in Miami, before taking a stroll through HBO Max’s recent releases Locked Down and Tiger, then diving deeper into their library for a legendary biopic and stopping by Netflix for what one of my friends called, “maybe the best movie you’ve ever recommended to me.” In this week’s Trailer Watch, we’re checking in on the state of the Oscar race with a late entrant.
One Night in Miami
There was a time in early Hollywood history when stage actors laughed at colleagues who decided to appear in motion pictures. And really, who could blame them. It was the early 20th Century, and no “serious” actor would choose to perform Vaudeville on the screen over Shakespeare on the stage.
Eventually cinematic storytelling improved, and as movies became the dominant cultural force its actors perpetrated the same discrimination on their TV counterparts. A movie star wouldn’t get caught dead appearing on television, until the point when that’s where all the juicy roles were, and now you’d be hard-pressed to find a new show without an A-lister or two.
Still, the feeling persists that stage acting is the pinnacle of the art form. Perhaps it is because the actor must perform his lines and actions in one take, with no margin for error. Or because he/she must project his dialogue to the back of the auditorium. Or, I suspect, it’s because on the stage the actor stands totally unprotected by camera angles and quick cutting. The responsibility of the story falls entirely on his or her shoulders.
That’s why there’s still a degree of prestige associated with what you’ll hear people call “classically trained Shakespearean actors,” and accounts for at least part of the reason why British talent has invaded American prestige moviemaking, up to and including Gary Oldman playing a New York City Jew in Mank, and Kingsley Ben-Adir playing characters as quintessentially American as Barack Obama in “The Comey Rule” and Malcolm X in this movie, One Night in Miami.
For this reason actors truly love movies adapted from stage plays. They come closest to recreating the meaty dialogue and emotional crescendos. Think about Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glenn Ross, Dustin Hoffman in The Death of a Salesman, F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus, or Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Those are iconic roles, and importantly, whenever you think of those movies you first think of the acting performances.
Upon this premise is built One Night in Miami, originally a stage production written by Kemp Powers (who also co-wrote Pixar’s Soul this year) who adapted the piece to be the directorial debut of Oscar-winning actress Regina King.
The promise was for not one, not two, but four irresistible parts, reflecting the four icons of American life who really did meet in real life the night of Cassius Clay’s world championship fight in 1964.
If you build it, they will come. Ben-Adir is Malcolm X, Leslie Odom Jr. is Sam Cooke, Aldis Hodge is Jim Brown, and Eli Goree is Clay.
It’s an acting showcase for all four of them, the type of performances that garner Oscar buzz and elevate their careers to the next level.
Too often, however, the movie is hamstrung by the acting showcase. The constraints of stage-to-screen adaptation are painfully clear throughout, and the narrative unfolds at times like an exchange of monologues. The four of them are together in a room, then each combination of two is split off into their own individual conversations in a way that doesn’t feel entirely authentic.
In some ways the minimal cinematography and set design feels intentional, because the movie is far more about the content of these monologues and dialogues than it is how they piece together.
It’s like a really beautifully constructed, more immersive podcast. After each character is introduced and finds their way to the hotel room, what follows is an exchange of ideas.
In that way One Night in Miami is one of the most important conversations of the year. It bypasses the usual, convenient talking points to debate the raw realities of being black in the United States. And as men with wealth and power within that community, what is the best way to further the cause?
That question pits Malcom X — on the side of militant antagonism — with Sam Cooke — on the side of financial freedom. The audience gets taken on a journey, at various points siding wholeheartedly with one side and then the other, before coming to a messy but satisfying compromise in the end.
As an essay contributing to perhaps the most important conversation in the country today, this movie is a marvel. As a complete work of cinema, I found it a bit lacking. But in this case, your decision whether or not to watch it should be influenced far more by category one than category two.
And truthfully, you don’t want to miss these acting performances. Embodying characters with whom the audience already has a relationship as well-established as we do with these titans is no easy feat, and yet these four make it look effortless. I dare any of the actors who played these roles on stage to disagree.
Something New
Locked Down (HBO Max): On its face, I’m not too interested in a movie about a couple stuck together in Covid quarantine on the verge of breaking up (we’ll probably get a dozen of these, including another one at the bottom of this newsletter). But you add to the mix director Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrow) and screenwriter Steven Knight (showrunner of “Peaky Blinders”), plus Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and a heist plot involving a $3 million diamond? Now you have my attention. Under non-pandemic circumstances, one would hope this movie would be way breezier and not take itself so seriously, but the over-dramatized acting here strangely suits a moment in which we all feel like the sky is falling. Ultimately the group didn’t let logistical pandemic limitations stand in the way of an entirely competent heist movie. And let’s be real. The bar doesn’t even need to be set that high to get you to watch a heist movie.
Tiger (HBO Max): The most important question in sports coverage today is the degree to which a subject is influencing the telling of his own story. This summer’s “The Last Dance,” for example, was executive produced by Michael Jordan and therefore edited like a celebratory infomercial (a mandatory requisite, because Jordan had sign-off rights to the exclusive ‘97 footage).
This documentary on Tiger Woods exposes the pros and cons of the other side of the spectrum, an objective examination of Tiger’s life and legacy without the participation of the primary subject. First and foremost, that makes the project more interesting. One leaves the two-part, nearly four-hour program with a complete picture of a complicated figure (even if close observers would note there was no new revelations). Unfortunately, at times the documentary sags under the weight of the elephant in the room, being Tiger’s absence of perspective and inner thoughts during key moments of his journey. In this world where we have to pick one or the other, I prefer option two.
Something Old
Malcolm X (1992, HBO Max): It’s impossible to watch Kingsley Ben-Adir’s portrayal of the fiery civil rights leader and not think back to Spike Lee’s biopic, which features perhaps the greatest Denzel Washington performance of his career (and I know, that is saying A LOT). The movie is provocative, controversial, and captivating, kinda like the character it portrays.
Something to Stream
Nocturnal Animals (Netflix): I’m surprised not by the fact that famous fashion designer Tom Ford wrote and directed this movie — many an ego has convinced successful men of their own genius — but by the fact that the movie is actually good. Upon rewatch this week, I’d bump that up to REALLY good. A compelling-if-traditional revenge narrative is personified as a novel within a more abstract character study, and the movie has much to offer both to the shallowest of thrill-seeking viewers and the deepest examiners. Plus, both plot lines are packed with recognizable actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Armie Hammer, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Laura Linney, Michael Sheen. For fans of intense thrillers who don’t mind a dash of hyper-violence, it’ll be hard to do much better than this.
Trailer Watch: Malcolm & Marie
We’re still three months out from the Academy Awards, but it is notable how little energy is being generated by the awards race. In a year without the usual For Your Consideration glad-handing, there’s a belief — really more of a hope — that maybe this year’s Oscars will be given out to the most deserving recipients. The only problem with that daydream is that critical consensus has yet to crystalize around a set of contenders. Still, there seems to be a place every year for the Marriage Story-esque relationship drama that allows actors to play their biggest and rawest emotions. Add on top of that a layer of Covid quarantine timeliness and who knows, maybe this movie spins the strongest narrative. One thing seems pretty clear: awards voters are eager to recognize the rising star of Zendaya, who re-teams here with “Euphoria” showrunner Sam Levinson and stars alongside John David Washington.