sounds like a “dude’s delight” movie: Four men out on the town, no attachments to keep them in line and a skyward limit to their evening revelry. But the four men are Sam Cooke, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown and, most of all, Malcolm X; the town is actually the Magic City; and the specific evening is February 25, 1964, when heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston crossed gloves with Clay and lost his title in what a plurality of commentators described as an “upset.
Her adaptation of Kemp Powers’ stage play is a historical document written to presuppose what conversations these fellows might’ve had in private and, save for a pair of Malcolm’s Nation of Islam bodyguards, away from prying ears. It’s a compelling fiction rooted in reality. It’s also thoroughly entertaining, witty and exuberant. This isn’t a film about meaningless merrymaking. It’s about conversations that actually matter, both within the period context and without.
Little that Malcom , Brown , Cooke and Clay confab about has faded into irrelevance in 2021. Their closed door exchanges remain urgent even now, nearly 60 years after Cooke’s and Malcolm’s respective passings and only 5 years after Clay’s.
When Ben-Adir reclines on a chair or sits on a bed, the guy’s still a perpetual motion engine of frayed nerves. Something’s coming for him, and he knows it, but he doesn’t know what of the many somethings coming for him will reach him first. Ben-Adir has arguably the most difficult task of King’s leads: Stepping out from the shadow of Denzel Washington’s performance in Spike Lee’s. That he does so with such a deft touch is a remarkable feat.
They’re an imminently compelling group, and King’s an imminently talented filmmaker who understands that directing is all about knowing where to place the damn camera. She knows. She finds her angles and sorts out her blocking with the casual grace of a veteran. One night with her, and with her cast, just isn’t enough.
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