Quella notte a Miami...

What do 4 African American community icons talk about in a hotel room in Miami?

It's a fictional meeting, yes, but the content discussed could not be more real.

The film focuses on civil rights and the increasingly influential role of African Americans in American society, whether in sport, music, politics or society in general.

The actors are perfect for the roles they play, giving essential authenticity to the story, and not just that each character was the raw reflection of the areas in which they are inserted.

The discussions / talks are captivating and well-paced, without any boring moments.

Regina King really knew how to make this film, without too much drama or too much "demonization" of the white man, and giving to the audience a truth that many still try to hide nowadays.

If you've ever read Jean-Paul Sartre's Huit clos/No Exit, this movie will look very familiar. It's the story of four men - four very famous men - who spend an evening in a motel room after one of them, Cassius Clay (soon to become Mohammed Ali), defeats Sonny Listen for the World Heavyweight Championship. As in Sartre's play, they rehash each other's past lives, rip each other and themselves apart, etc. The "only" difference is that, in order to turn the original play on which this is based into a movie, about half an hour of extraneous material is added at the beginning before the four get to the motel room.

The acting here is all first rate. I can't tell you how close the actors come to impersonating the originals, but that's irrelevant, because this is still basically a play "based on historical characters" and not a pseudo-documentary. (The meeting of the four never actually took place.) It is a discussion of each Black man's obligation to participate in some way in the Civil Rights movement delivered in dialogue form, as Plato did with his Dialogues over 2,000 years ago.

There are times when the discussions don't sound "natural" - whatever that means. (Almost none of No Exit sounds natural, except perhaps for a convention of philosophers.) How much that bothers you will vary with your tolerance for philosophy staged in theatrical form. My recommendation would be to skip the first 20 minutes or so of the movie and just get down to the motel scene.

If you have read a biography of Malcolm X, or seen Spike Lee's movie about him, certain parts of this movie dealing with him will be clearer, in particular his relationship with the Nation of Islam. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

This just became available on Amazon streaming movies. The "one night" reference is Feb 25th, 1964 in Miami, the night Cassius Clay (22), (later known as Muhammad Ali), surprised boxing fans by defeating Sonny Liston who threw in the towel after 6 rounds.

The four prominent friends were Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. You see, I was in college at that time, all of them are were known to me, so seeing this stage play turned into a movie has a very relevant meaning.

Although it is based on a true story of real people, unfortunately there are no tape recordings of their conversations that night, and some facts were changed for dramatic effect, so it isn't possible to determine how "accurate" it is. Nonetheless it is a good depiction of the times and what these black men were facing, and some of the 1960s drive to overcome the rampant discrimination that existed. Of course the issue still isn't behind us, there is still a ways to go.

This is a good movie, especially for those of us who remember those days. I find myself wondering how it comes across to the younger (under 60) age groups.

A stylish and promising debut from Regina King. While not as constantly engaging as I was hoping, it still features brilliant performances all around and some of the strongest directing I've seen all year; I would love to see the Oscar winning actress become an Oscar nominated director!

Set against the 1960s and Ali's victory, four influential Black men meet in a motel room and talk about the role of civil rights, their responsibility of influence, how to fight, how to win, what does power mean. How all four men wielded their power different and the 'right way'

The conversation between Sam and 'Clay' in the car got me. The conversation of power to exist without constraint. Got me. 65 years and what these men dream haven't been fully realized.

'We aren't weapons' And the gut punch on the porch took my breath And Odon's voice

7.5 It was limited as a film as it was play first and seemed like Ma Rainey to have existed best like that. Still excellent but doesn't transfer seemlessly.