STING LIKE A BEE // A FILM REVIEW OF "ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI"

BY MATEO MORENO

(Note: This review first appeared on September 19th 2020 as part of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival Coverage).

 Regina King has set fire to the screen time and time again as an actress, winning an Oscar and an Emmy for doing so. So it seems only fitting that she now heads behind the camera, making her triumphant directorial debut with ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, a fantastic and full of life adaptation of Kemp Powers' vibrant play (he himself wrote the adaptation). The story is set arounds four legends and one legendary night: Feb 25th, 1964. Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) has just beat his opponent Sonny Liston (the first of two fights against Liston that he would win). To celebrate, he gathered in a hotel room with his friends Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and...well, what happened in that room still remains a somewhat mystery. However, playwright Kemp Powers theorized what "might have been" in his 2013 play of the same name. Now, Regina King directs his words onto the screen with substantial power.

The men could not be more different. Malcolm X was paranoid that he was always being followed (which, often he was) and his behavior is much more subdued than the rest of the group. Sam Cooke is ready to have a good time, as is Jim Brown (though Brown has more reservations). Cassius Clay is thrilled and energized after his win but what occurs between the men in place of simply a party is a meeting of the minds and souls. They banter back and forth on the plight of the Black man in the 60's, of their place in society. They bicker about what actually constitutes as a "party," about the price of fame and what it's worth. They speak about racism and wonder out loud if they all are doing enough. It's a lot of powerful material, broken down between some of the most powerful Black men to walk this earth. The answers aren't easy, nor is the truth, but as the men fight, agree, yell and connect, we see four friends trying to make sense of this mess of a world while agreeing to keep on trying to make it better, and to make themselves better in the process.

King does an excellent job in keeping a fast and furious tone. The action is set mostly inside one hotel room, but King excels in finding interesting ways to set up shots, creating the tension in small places and brings out the best in this dynamic cast. All four men are brilliant. Goree feels so much like Cassius Clay that you may actually have to remind yourself that it isn't actually footage of the man himself. He plays it powerfully but also playfully, just as the real Clay did. Ben-Adir's Malcolm X is a stoic force. He's a man who truly wants every Black man to realize their value and that they must speak up, using their voice for change. At the same time, he demonstrates also how hard it was for Malcolm to sometimes connect with basic things (his idea of a party is a fridge of ice cream). Hodge is a fiery Jim Brown and an early scene, set at a white benefactors home (played by Beau Bridges), we sadly see just how little power even a famous Black man actually held in 1965. Rounding out the main cast, Odom Jr. brings a wave of energy, a soothing voice and dynamic power to his portrayal of Sam Cooke. He energetically fills the screen with busts of energy and showcases beautifully the discovery that he needed to "say more" in his music about the world around him. Powers adapts his own words perfectly and makes a dream team alongside King. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI may be fiction based on facts that happened years ago, but it feels as close to the truth as it can possibly be. It's a must-see in any decade.

GRADE: A

BASED ON THE PLAY AND ADAPTED BY Kemp Powers DIRECTED BY Regina King STARRING Kingsley Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree, Lance Reddick, Christian Magby, Michael Imperioli, Nicolette Robinson. NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATRES (WHERE OPEN) AND ON AMAZON PRIME.

BORN TO SPARK // A FILM REVIEW OF "SOUL"

BY MATEO MORENO

Pixar is unlike any animation studio in every single way. No other studio that has come before or since has changed each of their film looks, the feel, even the animation style so uniquely different. They push the boundaries of what constitutes as a "kids movie" and because the stories are so damn good, they invite the parents, and any other adults around them, to embrace the movie just as much as the small ones do. The young will enjoy the films on one level while the adults will pick up on something else entirely. From Toy Story to Onward, each Pixar film has both celebrated the silly and the sophisticated. Their latest is SOUL, making its premiere on Disney+ due to the Pandemic. The film once again embraces a world where children will enjoy it thoroughly while adults pick up on even more. And I must say, this masterpiece of a film is already one of my favorites.

Wearing shades of an animated Defending Your Life, SOUL tells the story of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a music teacher who has dreams of a jazz career all of his life. Instead, he teaches music in a public school. He's so well liked by the school that they offer him a full time position, one that is met with a whole lot of reservation. Does this mean his dreams are over? That he should resign himself as a teacher and not a full time musician? As fate would have it, he gets a phone call that day from an ex-student who's now playing with a famous jazz quartet led by Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), a favorite of Joe's. The fourth member of the quartet bailed and they need a last minute replacement for their evening show. So Joe sprints over to them and the audition goes great, great enough for him to book the gig that evening. Joe is thrilled, so much in fact that he doesn't see an open manhole and plummets below to his death.

Joe wakes us looking much different. He's now a soul on a stairway to heaven of sorts. But he has no intention of dying the day that his dreams are finally coming true. So he heads in the other direction, only to fall off the stairs and land in a dreamy landscape called "The Great Before." Here, souls are assigned personalities and then sent off to earth. Joe ends up disguising himself as a different soul and gets paired up with 22 (Tiny Fey), a difficult soul who refuses to go to earth. She's been paired up with countless others, including Mother Teresa and proudly states that she made her cry. She hasn't found her "spark" but does love staying in The Great Before, messing around. Since Joe desperately needs to get back to Earth, he aims at helping 22 find her spark and get them both to earth.

I won't spoil anything else that happens, and I promise that it's a magical journey worth taking. Co-Directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers have crafted a brilliant and stunningly animated feature that delves into the meaning of life, the meaning of death and everything in between. Each area the film explores is animated differently and each is stunningly beautiful. When on earth, the animated is almost life-like clear and immediately becomes a new classic "set in New York film (every frame BREATHES New York)." The afterlife sequences are also stunning in different ways and took my breath away several times. Jamie Foxx, playing the first lead Black character in a Pixar film, is wonderfully charming and funny. Tina Fey, as the mischievous 22, is marvelously playful and full of life, much like the film itself. The soundtrack is full of joy as well, with a great score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross and wonderful jazz selections by Jon Batiste. SOUL will make you laugh, will most likely make you cry and by the end will fill you with such a magical, joyful view of life that you'll almost forget that you're stuck in the real world. And that's a magic trick indeed. 

GRADE: A

WRITTEN BY Pete Docter, Kemp Powers, Mike Jones DIRECTED BY Pete Docter, Kemp Powers FEATURING THE VOICES OF Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs. NOW PLAYING EXCLUSIVELY ON DISNEY +

THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED // "ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI" // TIFF 2020

BY MATEO MORENO

Regina King has set fire to the screen time and time again as an actress, winning an Oscar and an Emmy for doing so. So it seems only fitting that she now heads behind the camera, making her triumphant directorial debut with ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, a fantastic and full of life adaptation of Kemp Powers' vibrant play (he himself wrote the adaptation). The story is set arounds four legends and one legendary night: Feb 25th, 1964. Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) has just beat his opponent Sonny Liston (the first of two fights against Liston that he would win). To celebrate, he gathered in a hotel room with his friends Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and...well, what happened in that room still remains a somewhat mystery. However, playwright Kemp Powers theorized what "might have been" in his 2013 play of the same name. Now, Regina King directs his words onto the screen with substantial power.

The men could not be more different. Malcolm X was paranoid that he was always being followed (which, often he was) and his behavior is much more subdued than the rest of the group. Sam Cooke is ready to have a good time, as is Jim Brown (though Brown has more reservations). Cassius Clay is thrilled and energized after his win but what occurs between the men in place of simply a party is a meeting of the minds and souls. They banter back and forth on the plight of the Black man in the 60's, of their place in society. They bicker about what actually constitutes as a "party," about the price of fame and what it's worth. They speak about racism and wonder out loud if they all are doing enough. It's a lot of powerful material, broken down between some of the most powerful Black men to walk this earth. The answers aren't easy, nor is the truth, but as the men fight, agree, yell and connect, we see four friends trying to make sense of this mess of a world while agreeing to keep on trying to make it better, and to make themselves better in the process.

King does an excellent job in keeping a fast and furious tone. The action is set mostly inside one hotel room, but King excels in finding interesting ways to set up shots, creating the tension in small places and brings out the best in this dynamic cast. All four men are brilliant. Goree feels so much like Cassius Clay that you may actually have to remind yourself that it isn't actually footage of the man himself. He plays it powerfully but also playfully, just as the real Clay did. Ben-Adir's Malcolm X is a stoic force. He's a man who truly wants every Black man to realize their value and that they must speak up, using their voice for change. At the same time, he demonstrates also how hard it was for Malcolm to sometimes connect with basic things (his idea of a party is a fridge of ice cream). Hodge is a fiery Jim Brown and an early scene, set at a white benefactors home (played by Beau Bridges), we sadly see just how little power even a famous Black man actually held in 1965. Rounding out the main cast, Odom Jr. brings a wave of energy, a soothing voice and dynamic power to his portrayal of Sam Cooke. He energetically fills the screen with busts of energy and showcases beautifully the discovery that he needed to "say more" in his music about the world around him. Powers adapts his own words perfectly and makes a dream team alongside King. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI may be fiction based on facts that happened years ago, but it feels as close to the truth as it can possibly be. It's a must-see in any decade.

GRADE: A

BASED ON THE PLAY AND ADAPTED BY Kemp Powers DIRECTED BY Regina King STARRING Kingsley Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree, Lance Reddick, Christian Magby, Michael Imperioli, Nicolette Robinson. Selected as part of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. For more info: https://www.tiff.net/events/one-night-in-miami