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One Night in Miami...



Adapted by Kemp Powers from his acclaimed play, the feature directorial debut of Academy Award–winning actor Regina King puts viewers in a room with four icons at the forefront of Black American culture as they carouse, clash, bare their souls, and grapple with their places within the sweeping change of the civil rights movement. February 25, 1964, has gone down in history as the day that the brash young boxer Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Sonny Liston, but what happened after the fight was perhaps even more incredible: Ali, civil rights leader Malcolm X, NFL great Jim Brown, and "King of Soul" Sam Cooke all came together at a Miami motel. Electric with big ideas and activist spirit, One Night in Miami... plunges us into the midst of an intimate, ongoing conversation—and a defining moment in American history.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital transfer, approved by director Regina King, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between King and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons
• New conversation among King, screenwriter Kemp Powers, and critic Gil Robertson
• Conversation between King and filmmaker Barry Jenkins from a 2021 episode of The Director's Cut – A DGA Podcast
• New program featuring King and actors Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr.
• New program on the making of the film, featuring King, Powers, director of photography Tami Reiker, editor Tariq Anwar, producer Jody Klein, costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, and set decorator Janessa Hitsman
• New program on the film's sound design, featuring sound editor and mixer Andy Hay, sound mixer Paul Ledford, and music producer Nick Baxter
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• English descriptive audio
• PLUS: An essay by critic Gene Seymour

Odd review. The Criterion blurb emphatically states that the film is a fictional account of a meeting that really did occur, but Svetpants spends about half the review discussing movies about fictional encounters, because he thinks the meeting never took place.

I liked this. The resemblance between the actors and their real life counterparts is remarkable, and the singing and the boxing were impressive.

This is a well-shot, well-acted film, but I thought the script was hopelessly exposition-heavy, as if the filmmakers didn't trust the audience to know who these world famous people were, or anything about them. And the contrivance that this encounter was the big turning point for everybody is lazy and embarrassing, and doesn't help the exposition problem at all (since the characters aren't just continually explaining their backstories, but also explaining / foreshadowing what's going to happen afterwards.)

Just went to my local library and they had three copies which I mean it's a bit worrisome. Does Criterion release sales numbers because these black modern films seem like they aren't selling. The film was okay but I don't know I feel like as a consumer who loves this line identity politics is becoming a poison pill of sorts.

This was licensed when it was seen as a front runner at the Oscars. After it underperformed in nominations, Criterion was stuck with it sans a mass marketable appeal afterwards. I don’t think the minority filmmaker angle really comes into play with this particular title

3 copies of one title seems like a lot? Am I misreading that

It does take more than half of my hand to count that high...

Well what’s the size of the library system? Are we talking about a rural county library or a metropolitan branch? I guess if one is really concerned about this one could request the circulation stats from the librarian and/or lodge a complaint about tax dollars being spent unwisely. One could also write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper or post something on Facebook, perhaps with an accompanying image of an angry Minion.

If it's in Florida, one could lodge a challenge and get it pulled altogether. That'll teach Criterion!

zedz wrote: Tue Jun 20, 2023 9:08 pm This is a well-shot, well-acted film, but I thought the script was hopelessly exposition-heavy, as if the filmmakers didn't trust the audience to know who these world famous people were, or anything about them. And the contrivance that this encounter was the big turning point for everybody is lazy and embarrassing, and doesn't help the exposition problem at all (since the characters aren't just continually explaining their backstories, but also explaining / foreshadowing what's going to happen afterwards.)

My thoughts exactly. I was really hoping this would be a more adventurous effort, but it was safe, boring, and forgettable - all impressions the film was trying to achieve the opposite of in its central conceit of the 'significant meeting'. I love Regina King, and hope her next feature shows greater risks to assert the unique voice she carries as an actress, though I appreciate that's not every director's ambition

MongooseCmr wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 12:10 am 3 copies of one title seems like a lot? Am I misreading that

For a library...yes that's an insane amount of copies for a title.80-90% of titles at my library pick up one maybe two copies. The new Avatar got two copies...the new Guardians got three, The Criterion wikipedia page seems to be down but they only seem to order one out of every 10-15 releases, So to see multiple copies of a single title of an expensive brand is jarring and weird.

Matt wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 2:05 am Well what’s the size of the library system? Are we talking about a rural county library or a metropolitan branch? I guess if one is really concerned about this one could request the circulation stats from the librarian and/or lodge a complaint about tax dollars being spent unwisely. One could also write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper or post something on Facebook, perhaps with an accompanying image of an angry Minion.

It's the "triangle" in North Carolina so it serves three cities (Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham). I can understand the attitude except my library actually wasn't able to get any films for several months because of "budget" issues. This thread also seemed to have no interest pr engagement in years.