The champ IS here…
One Night in Miami imagines a night in February 1964, when real-life friends Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X gather to celebrate Clay’s win over Sonny Liston, which made him the heavyweight champion of the world. The mood is celebratory but the light banter takes a serious tone when these four men take serious looks at how their celebrity is best served to help the black community in a time of upheaval and strife.
From the play of the same name by Kemp Powers (who also wrote the screenplay) Regina King slides into the director chair with an incredibly relevant master stroke of a film that is not only timely but fascinating and incredibly relevant.
With this film King will firmly establish herself as an “Actor’s Director” as she really lets the four protagonists of the film have time to breathe and work with these characters who are real life people. Sure it’s all fictional, which really just means that it’s BETTER than real and we get a chance to see some iconic figures in pop culture behind closed doors as they grappled with the realities of the time they we’re living in.
With stellar work from Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr, the real discover here is Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, giving the iconic figure more genuine humanity then we’ve seen in years past.
There’s no doubt that One Night In Miami is the first genuine awards caliber movie this year.
David Voigt is a Toronto based writer with a problem and a passion for the moving image and all things cinema. Having moved from production to the critical side of the aisle for well over 15 years now at outlets like Examiner.com, Criticize This, Dork Shelf (Now That Shelf), and to.Night Newspaper.
He’s been all across the continent; serving on the FIPRESCI Jury at the Festival Du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, covering festivals out side of Toronto like Calgary Underground Film Festival, CUFF Docs, Slamdance, Fantasia, SXSW, DOC NYC, Santa Barbara Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival and many others
However, In the uncertain world of modern film journalism, David also knew that he needed to have a hand in writing and cementing his own contributions on the global film scene.
Having eclipsed the 10 year anniversary of his own outlet, In The Seats, where he’s been striving to support film (and TV) from all walks of life and his podcast “In The Seats With…” where after 5 & ½ years and over 750 episodes he’s talked with a wide variety of filmmakers, actors, behind the scenes artisans and so much more on the art of storytelling for the screen, which is spawning the launch of a new show in the Spring of 2026. “ITS: Soundtracks” will focus on the use of soundtrack and score in film which he believes is a combination that is the cinematic equivalent of Peanut Butter and Chocolate.
All this as well as hosting and moderating a variety of big screen events around the city, covering film in all its forms is just a way of life for him.
