Kingsley Ben-Adir Archives

Review: ‘Bob Marley: One Love,’ starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers and Nadine Marshall

February 13, 2024

by Carla Hay

Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch in “Bob Marley: One Love” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1976 to 1978 (with flashbacks to the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s), in Jamaica and other parts of the world, the dramatic biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” features a predominantly black cast of characters (with some white people) portraying people connected in some way to reggae superstar Bob Marley.

Culture Clash: Bob Marley is plagued by threats of violence from people who see him as a political figure or a musical rival; a troubled marriage to his backup singer Rita Marley; and childhood memories of being abandoned by his father.

Culture Audience: “Bob Marley: One Love” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Bob Marley and celebrity biopics, but this music-oriented drama hits a lot of the same wrong notes.

Kingsley Ben-Adir in “Bob Marley: One Love” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Bob Marley: One Love” alternates between being bland and sloppy. The end result is that this disappointing biopic looks like a boring parody of a music legend’s life story. The dreadlock wigs look too fake and are a distraction. Although some of the cast members seem to be doing their best to salvage this mishandled misfire, “Bob Marley: One Love” is torpedoed by jumbled direction and a messy screenplay. Bob Marley, the pioneering reggae legend from Jamaica, died of skin cancer (acral lentiginous melanoma) in 1981, at the age of 36. Unfortunately, this biopic does not do full justice to his influential legacy.

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, “Bob Marley: One Love” was co-written by Green, Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers and Zach Baylin. Green and Baylin’s previous film is 2021’s “King Richard,” the Oscar-winning biopic starring Will Smith as Richard Williams, father of tennis legends Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Green directed “King Richard,” and Baylin received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the movie. Whereas “King Richard” had an easy-to-follow timeline told in chronological order, “Bob Marley: One Love” has a scrambled timeline that will be confusing to many viewers who are unfamiliar with Bob Marley’s story.

Clearly, these filmmakers are capable of making award-worthy movies. What went wrong with this Bob Marley biopic? It starts with the screenplay, which might have suffered from “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome. It might explain why the screenplay seems to be watered-down and devoid of anything truly electrifying. (For the purposes of this review, the real Bob Marley will be referred to as Bob Marley, while the Bob Marley character in the movie will be referred to as Bob.)

“Bob Marley: One Love” has an annoying tendency to show Bob Marley as a successful adult musician (played by Kingsley Ben-Adir) relying heavily on flashbacks to his childhood and teen years whenever the adult Bob wants to get inspiration to write a song. (Nolan Collignon portrays Bob as a child of about 6 or 7 years old. Quan-Dajai Henriques portrays Bob as a teenager.) Based on the loads of information available about the real Bob Marley, he clearly did not draw inspiration mainly from his childhood memories.

In fact, Bob Marley’s life philosophy was to focus on the present and not dwell on the past. It seems disrespectful and very gimmicky for the “Bob Marley: One Love” filmmakers to thrown in hazy-looking, dreamlike sequences of Bob experiencing the trauma of being insulted and abandoned by his father as a child before he writes a song.

Bob Marley (whose birth name was Robert Nesta Marley) was born in the small town of Nine Mile, Jamaica, to a white British plantation overseer named Norval Sinclair Marley and a black Jamaican named Cedella Malcolm, who worked on the plantation. In “Bob Marley: One Love,” Norval is portrayed by Daniel Melville Jr., while Cedella is portrayed by Nadine Marshall.

In real life, Norval Marley and Cedella Marley were married. Norval died when Bob Marley was 10 years old. Cedella then married an American civil servant named Edward Booker, changed her last name to Booker, and had two other sons from this marriage: Richard and Anthony Booker. Cedella also moved to the United States because of this marriage. Edward, Richard and Anthony are not in this movie.

In “Bob Marley: One Love,” Bob’s childhood is depicted as Norval (dressed in a British military uniform, because the real Norval claimed to be a veteran of the British Royal Marines) being an absentee father who rejected and abandoned Bob. Cedella was then left to raise Bob as a single mother. And because her relationship with Bob’s stepfather Edward Booker isn’t in the movie, “Bob Marley: One Love” gives the impression that Bob didn’t have a father figure in his life during his childhood and teen years.

The flashbacks to Bob’s teen years also seem superficial and not entirely accurate. Bob and his teenage sweetheart Rita (played by Nia Ashi) form an emotional bond over feeling like outcasts in their school. They both talk about being bullied and teased by their peers because of the color of their skin: Bob (who called himself or Rob or Robbie back then) got flack for being “too light-skinned,” and Rita for being “too dark-skinned.”

Bob and Rita share a love of music, and she eventually becomes a backup singer in his band. Rita is also the person who introduces Bob to Rastafarianism. The movie has the expected scenes of Bob and many other Rastafarians smoking marijuana.

Bob’s earliest days as a musician are shown fleetingly and without much substance— unless you think it’s fascinating to see a teenage Bob Marley and his band show up at a rehearsal/recording studio space and have the owner wave a gun at them to prevent them from going inside because he thinks the band looks too young to be professional musicians. The owner then changes his mind when he hears Bob sing. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Years later, when Bob and Rita (played by Lashana Lynch) are married parents and experiencing Bob’s growing fame, the rosy glow of their teenage romance has long since dimmed and given way to the harsh realities of his infidelities, including having children with other women, with Rita being a caregiver for most of these out-of-wedlock children. This fact is mentioned quickly during an argument that Bob and Rita have outside a music industry party in Europe.

The argument starts because Bob, like most cheaters, is irrationally jealous and accusatory over suspicions that his main partner is being unfaithful too. Bob has a violent temper and is seen lashing out at any man whom Bob thinks might be sexually involved with Rita. The movie doesn’t go into further details about Bob’s extramarital affairs. There are a few scenes where Rita glares angrily at women who are hanging around like groupies. “Bob Marley: One Love” is so poorly written and clumsily directed, these marital problems are dropped in the movie like snippets of a soap opera and then ignored.

“Bob Marley: One Love” is mainly just a series of scenes where he has conflicts and dilemmas over whether or not to perform the One Love Peace Concert (which took place at in 1978, at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica); how to protect his family from threats of violence; and creative control over his music. The majority of the film takes place from 1976 to 1978, with the One Love Peace Concert set up as the movie’s expected climax, just like the Live Aid concert was for the 2018 Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“Bob Marley: One Love” shows how Bob was getting pressure from various people with different agendas on whether or not to do the concert, which was during a time of enormous political upheaval and gang violence in Jamaica. The people who were against the concert thought that the crowd would be too rowdy, or that Bob was trying to turn the concert into a political rally. Bob is shown repeatedly saying that the concert was not a political event, although certain people refused to see it any other way.

Michael Manley, a left-wing liberal who was Jamaica’s prime minister at the time, was in a heated political feud with Edward Seaga, a right-wing conservative who would later become prime minister of Jamaica in 1980. Manley (who was Jamaica’s prime minister from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992) and Seaga (who was Jamaica’s prime minister from 1980 to 1989) are mentioned multiple times in “Bob Marley: One Love,” but are not portrayed by actors in this movie, which only uses archival footage of these two former leaders of Jamaica.

In real life, Bob Marley and some adult members of his family and entourage were shot during a home invasion in Kingston, on December 3, 1976, a few months after the release of his album “Rastaman Vibration.” The movie depicts the home invasion as gang violence from two young thugs who were sent to assassinate Bob Marley, out of some real or perceived insult that Bob Marley gave to their gang leader. This home invasion is depicted in a very haphazard way, early on in the film.

Shots are fired (with Bob shown in slow motion, like a deer caught in headlights), and the two gunmen escape after shooting Rita, who was sitting in a parked care outside the house. One minute, Bob is swaggering next to a severely wounded Rita, as she’s being wheeled on a gurney into a hospital emergency room. The next minute, he’s visiting her in the hospital and feeling enormously guilty, since he was the main target of the home invasion. (Rita and Bob eventually decide that she and their children will temporarily live with Bob’s mother Cedella in Delaware, while he goes to London to record his next album.) And then a few scenes later, Rita is back on tour with Bob, and her difficult medical recovery is quickly glossed over in the movie.

As for Bob’s skin cancer, it is portrayed in the movie as warning signs that he ignores. Bob has a toe that looks infected and isn’t healing, but he delays going to a doctor to find out the cause and to get medical treatment. By the time that Bob finds out that he has cancer, it’s too late. The movie doesn’t want to bother with showing the depressing downward health spiral of him being in the final stages of cancer. Considering the crass way that the movie fabricated how Bob Marley used the attempted murder of himself and his loved ones as the inspiration for the chorus of “Three Little Birds,” you get the feeling that if the “Bob Marley: One Love” filmmakers could’ve gotten away with fabricating a Bob Marley cancer songwriting scene, they would’ve done that too.

And what about the music that Bob Marley created? There are some scenes of Bob recording music and rehearsing with his band the Wailers. Unless you’re a Bob Marley and the Wailers expert, you probably won’t remember all of the members of the band as they are presented in this movie, because the movie makes them look mostly generic. The exceptions are backup singer Rita and Junior Marvin (played by David Kerr), a Jamaican British guitarist who also worked with Stevie Wonder. Junior’s audition gets a longer-than-necessary scene in the movie. The other members of the Wailers who are depicted in the movie are Seeco Patterson (played by Stefan Wade), Family Man Barrett (played by Aston Barrett Jr.), Tyrone Downie (played by Tosin Cole), Carly Barrett (played by Hector “Roots” Lewis), Antonio “Gillie” Gilbert (played by Gawaine “J-Summa” Campbell), Judy Mowatt (played by Anna-Sharé Blake), Neville Garrick (played by Sheldon Shepherd) and Don Kinsey (played by Andrae Simpson).

Other musicians who worked with Bob Marley are given the bare minimum of screen time in the movie. Rita mentions to Bob how he drove “Peter and Bunny” out of the Wailers by being too much of a dictator. Of course, music aficionados will know that she’s talking about Peter Tosh (played by Alexx A-Game) and Bunny Wailer, also known as Bunny Livingston (played by Abijah “Naki Wailer” Livingston), but these musicians’ contributions to the Wailers are nearly erased in the movie.

Because “Bob Marley: One Love” was officially sanctioned by the Bob Marley estate, the best parts of the movie are those that show Bob Marley’s music being performed. Rita Marley, son Ziggy Marley and daughter Cedella Marley are among the producers of this movie. Bob Marley’s best-known hits are all in the film, including “One Love,” “Get Up, Stand Up,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Three Little Birds,” “Jamming” and “Simmer Down.” And the concert scenes are very good, although they still looked very staged.

This over-staging of scenes is a huge problem in “Bob Marley: One Love,” which never lets you forget that you’re just watching a lot of fabrication. For example, there’s a scene where Bob is driving a car, with his underage sons Ziggy (played by Xavier Woolry) and Stephen (played by Mekhai Newell) as passengers. When Ziggy and Stephen express concern about another home invasion, he says in a sing-song voice, “Don’t worry ’bout a thing. Everything is going to be all right,” which is the famous chorus for “Three Little Birds.” The movie makes it look like this home-invasion trauma inspired him to come up with those lyrics. In reality, the song was inspired by three birds that used to fly near his home.

Another example of the movie’s over-staging and fabrication is in a scene that takes place in 1977, when Bob is in London to record his landmark “Exodus” album. He’s jogging in a park, when all of sudden, two rival Jamaican gang leaders—Claudie Massop (played by Brian Todd Boucher) and Bucky Marshall (played by Cornelius Orlando Grant)—suddenly show up in the park together to tell Bob that these two rivals have now called a truce. This scene looks “only in a movie” phony.

How did Claudie and Bucky know where to find Bob at that exact same moment in this very large park? Did they travel all the way from Jamaica together and decide to stalk him? And why couldn’t they just relay that message through a more convenient way? It’s because a fake-looking scene like this had to be created for the movie for dramatic purposes.

Another fake-looking scene is the debate over the album cover for “Exodus,” which was released in June 1977. In the movie, the original album cover was presented to Bob as an average-looking band photo. Bob wasn’t happy with it, so the album cover designer came up with the minimalist album cover (solid gold with the title “Exodus” in red letters) that ended up being the cover that was released. The movie depicts it as the cover that Bob wants, but pompous and opinionated publicist Howard Bloom (played by Michael Gandolfini) thinks it’s the wrong choice because he believes the cover isn’t very marketable.

Howard is portrayed as a music executive who thinks he knows better than Bob on how reggae should be marketed to audiences outside of Jamaica. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell (played by James Norton), who signed Bob Marley and the Wailers, is portrayed as someone who sometimes disagrees with Bob but generally trusts Bob’s vision. In real life, Chris Blackwell was known for his larger-than-life personality in the music industry, but you wouldn’t know if from the trite way that he’s portrayed in this move.

“Bob Marley: One Love” gives only surface-level depictions of race relations between black people and white people. The movie has an extensive section devoted to Bob Marley’s 1977 breakthrough tour of Europe, where nearly all of the audience members were white. In the movie, Bob’s interactions with white people are mostly in business meetings or at music industry functions, where he is treated like a star whom some rich and famous people wanted to latch onto because they thought Bob Marley was trendy at the time. The only real racial tension or hostility expressed in the movie is when a Rastafarian spiritual mentor named Elder Lewis (played by Mutabaruka) tells newlyweds Bob and Rita that Rastafarians don’t worship white gods and makes this comment about the Rastafarian chief deity: “Our God is black.”

Ben-Adir and Lynch give capable performances as Bob and Rita, even when they are given subpar dialogue. The movie only shows flattering portrayals of them as parents, although Rita (in the movie’s biggest argument scene with Bob) expresses resentment that she has most of the burden of being the children’s caretaker, while Bob is often away doing whatever he wants. “Bob Marley: One Love” is like a muddled and incomplete mosaic of Bob Marley. For a better and more insightful look at Bob Marley’s life, watch the 2012 documentary “Marley” instead.

Paramount Pictures will release “Bob Marley: One Love” in U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on March 19, 2024. “Bob Marley: One Love” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on May 28, 2024.

Review: ‘One Night in Miami…,’ starring Leslie Odom Jr., Aldis Hodge, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Eli Goree

January 15, 2021

by Carla Hay

“One Night in Miami…”

Directed by Regina King

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Miami on February 25, 1964, the dramatic film “One Night in Miami…” has a predominantly African American cast (with some white people) portraying celebrities, the middle-class and the working class.

Culture Clash: A social gathering of Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown leads to ego conflicts and differing opinions on race relations.

Culture Audience: “One Night in Miami…” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in a dramatic interpretation of what it would be like for four of the biggest African American heroes of the 1960s to spend time together as friends and sometimes adversaries.

Kingsley Ben-Adir (with camera), Aldis Hodge (in brown tie), Eli Goree (in tuxedo) and Leslie Odom Jr. (raising glass) in “One Night in Miami” (Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios)

It’s always tricky to do an entire story about hypothetical conversations between famous people who are well-respected and admired. If handled incorrectly, this portrayal could be considered very insincere or offensive. Imagine doing an entire story about four African American celebrities who, in their own different ways, weren’t just famous but were also inspirations to millions of people. And then you put all of four of them together (Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown) and have them hang out as if they’re old friends.

It happened in real life one night in Miami in 1964, but this story imagines what these four famous men talked about when they spent time together that night. The actors portraying these four friends are Eli Goree as Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), Leslie Odom Jr. as Cooke, Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X (whose real name was Malcolm Little) and Aldis Hodge as Brown. “One Night in Miami…,” the feature-film directorial debut of Oscar-winning actress Regina King, mostly succeeds in depicting this compelling story, but it takes a while to get there, since the second half of the movie is much better than the first half.

The movie is based on the play “One Night in Miami…,” which was written by Kemp Powers, who also wrote the movie’s screenplay. In many ways, the movie still looks like a play, since the second (and more intense) half of the film is mostly set in a hotel. However, the cinematic version of this story does a very good job of bringing a broader scope of locations that can’t be done in a stage play.

The audience is briefly taken into the lives of each of the four central characters to get a glimpse of what they’re like in public before their private selves are revealed later in ways that leave an impact on the characters as well as the audience. It’s a movie where the social cancer of racism is never far from the story, and it’s felt, seen and heard in various ways throughout the movie. “One Night in Miami…” skillfully shows the uncomfortable reality that how to deal with racism can divide African Americans and other people who are targets of racism, because the reality is that not everyone agrees with what it means to have “black power” and how to use it.

The beginning of the movie is essentially a montage of scenes showing why each man is famous and how their race impacts their life’s work. The boastful and charismatic boxing champ known as Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali after he became a Muslim) is shown in 1963 at a boxing match at London’s Wembley Stadium, where he soundly defeats his opponent Henry “The Hammer” Cooper. However triumphant this victory is for Cassius, it’s still shown in the movie that white people are the ones who control boxing and make the most money from it, while the boxers are just pawns in the game.

R&B singer Sam Cooke is shown on stage at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City, where he’s getting a chilly reception from an all-white audience who don’t seem to want a black person to be entertaining them. Some of the audience members leave in disgust while Sam is on stage. Sam performs the Debbie Reynolds song “Tammy” to try to appeal to the crowd, but deep down, he’s fuming at being booked at a place filled with racists.

Backstage in the dressing room after the show, Sam’s white manager tells him, “Boy, you really did bomb tonight, Sam.” Sam explodes in anger and yells, “Have you ever made a million dollars singing? Well, I have! So, until you do, keep your fucking mouth shut!” One of Sam’s backup musicians witnessing this tantrum then says somewhat jokingly about the manager’s comment: “He ain’t wrong though.” Later in the movie, there are cameos from singer Jackie Wilson (played by Jeremy Pope), “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson (played by Christopher Gorham) and “Tonight Show” sidekick Ed McMahon (played by Alan Wells) in the depiction of Sam’s life.

Cleveland Browns star Jim Brown is shown visiting a wealthy football benefactor named Mr. Carlton (played by Beau Bridges) at Carlton’s mansion on St. Simon’s Island in Georgia. The two men chat amiably on the mansion’s front porch, while Mr. Carlton’s star-struck daughter Emily (played by Emily Bridges) gushes over Jim, as if she can’t believe her luck that this major NFL star is at her home. Mr. Carlton tells Jim that if he never needs anything, don’t hesitate to ask. As Jim starts to follow Mr. Carlton into the house, Mr. Carlton turns to him with a smile and says to Jim that he can’t come in because black people (he uses the “n” word) aren’t allowed in his house.

Malcolm X’s fiery brand of racial ideology made him controversial in the U.S. civil rights movement because of his belief that all white people are the “enemy.” In the beginning of the movie, he’s shown coming home late and telling his wife Betty (played by Joaquina Kalukango) some news that he’s not happy about at all: Louis Farrakhan, a prominent influencer in the Nation of Islam who was likely to become the group’s leader, did not approve Malcolm’s request to leave the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad (played by Jerome Wilson), who was the Nation of Islam’s leader at the time, was like a mentor to Malcolm, who felt some trepidation of being perceived as a traitor.

It’s shown throughout the movie that this story takes place during a time when Malcolm wanted to start his own civil rights group and was grappling with insecurity and anger over how he was being treated by the Nation of Islam. He was feeling doubts about how much loyalty he owed to the Nation of Islam and also concerned about leaving the group because some of his allies could turn into enemies. The movie shows that Malcolm was worried enough that he traveled with security personnel, not just for protection against white supremacists but also for protection against anyone in the Nation of Islam who might come after him for wanting to leave the group.

The rest of the movie is then primarily set in Miami on February 25, 1964. Cassius, who was just 22 years old and soon to be known as Muhammad Ali, wins the world heavyweight boxing champ title against Sonny Liston (played by Aaron D. Alexander), who’s knocked out and gives up in the fight. Sam, Malcolm and Jim (who are in the audience) meet up with Cassius later, and they all go to the Hampton House Motel in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. It’s a motel that allowed African Americans because Miami was still segregated.

The four friends are all in a jovial mood and ready to party. Malcolm has brought a Rolleiflex 3.5 German twin lens reflex (TLR) camera, and he enjoys taking pictures with it. They horse around, almost like fraternity guys, and take turns using the camera. But the mood eventually turns more serious, as insecurities and differences of opinion rise to the surface.

At first, the disagreements are fairly superficial. Sam is disappointed that they can’t stay at a more upscale establishment, and he complains to the others about it. Jim and Cassius, who are bachelors, want to go looking for women to party with, while the married men in the group (Sam and Malcolm) are more hesitant. And as the night wears on, it becomes apparent that each man is at a crossroads in his life.

Jim has plans to retire from football and wants to become a movie star. He already has a Western film lined up, but Cassius scolds Jim for wanting to quit football. Cassius tells Jim that portraying a “sacrificial Negro” in a Western isn’t the same as being paid by the NFL. Sam is more encouraging of Jim’s showbiz ambitions and tells Jim that Los Angeles is like the Promised Land. Malcolm, who lives in New York City, vehemently disagrees with that belief.

Cassius has become close to Malcolm, who has influenced Cassius to convert to Islam and to be more outspoken about civil rights for African Americans. However, Cassius’ manager Angelo Dundee (played by Michael Imperioli) has been pressuring Cassius to distance himself from Malcolm, who is considered to be too radical for mainstream society. Angelo tells Cassius that white investors and sponsors are very nervous about Cassius’ association with Malcolm. It should come as no surprise what decision Cassius makes, because it started a new chapter in his life as Muhammad Ali.

While Cassius looks up to Malcolm as a pillar of strength, Malcolm isn’t feeling very secure about his life because he suspects that he could be in real danger. Malcolm is paranoid that he’s being followed. He frequently looks out the window, and his suspicions are confirmed when he sees strange men lurking about who could be government spies. Malcolm has a trusted bodyguard with him named Brother Kareem also known as Kareem X (played by Lance Reddick), a stoic employee who is accompanied by a younger assistant bodyguard named Cliff White (played by Kipori Woods), who is in awe of Malcolm.

Sam is a successful music entrepreneur (he owns his own music publishing and record label) in addition to being a famous singer. However, Sam is grappling with what it means to “cross over” to a mainstream (mostly white) audience. Will he be perceived as “selling out” and leaving behind his African American fan base? Or is he just making a good business decision to reach as wide of an audience as possible?

It’s this issue of racial integration that sparks a heated and extended argument between Sam and Malcolm. This arguing leads to the movie’s most memorable scenes and impressive performances from Odom and Ben-Adir, while Hodge and Goree sort of fade into the background. Jim and Cassius mostly just stand by and watch Sam and Malcolm verbally rip each other apart, but Cassius and Jim occasionally interject and try to make the peace when things get too problematic.

Malcolm’s choice words for Sam include: “You bourgeois Negroes are too happy with your scraps to really understand what’s at stake here … You will never be loved by the people you’re trying so hard to win over … You’re a monkey dancing for an organ grinder to them!”

Sam then criticizes Malcolm for kowtowing too much to Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. The R&B crooner also makes a verbal jab at Malcolm by telling him that Malcolm is the only one of the four friends who isn’t as financially successful as the others, thereby implying that Malcolm doesn’t have a real career. It’s a criticism that stings Malcolm because he knows that by leaving the Nation of Islam, he will be leaving behind much of his livelihood for an uncertain future.

Sam also points out that, unlike many black artists, he owns his own work, he invested in buying other artist’s music publishing, and he has the power to hire black people for jobs. “Everybody always talks about how they want a piece of the pie,” Sam declares defiantly. “Well, I don’t. I want the goddamn recipe!”

Jim is more inclined to side with Sam, who believes there’s nothing wrong with racial integration and working with white people. Jim comments on Malcolm’s views that black people need to think like militants: “We’re not anyone’s weapons, Malcolm.” Malcolm replies to Jim, “You need to be, for us to win.”

The issue of colorism is also brought up, as Jim confronts Malcolm about being light-skinned and using his lighter skin tone to his advantage. Jim essentially says that it’s easy for Malcolm to be so militant when his light skin gives him more privileges than darker-skinned black people. Malcolm responds by reiterating that black people’s authenticity should be judged by how black people help other black people, not by skin tone.

Because the characters of Sam and Malcolm have the most emotionally charged dialogue in the movie, Odom and Ben-Adir stand out the most in the film. Odom has the additional talent of doing his own singing in the movie, and his portrayal of Cooke is that of a man with a strong sense of self who’s unapologetic for how he wants to live his life. Ben-Adir’s portrayal of Malcolm X is of a more tortured soul, and the performance comes closer to showing a more human side to the real person. Both performances are outstanding in their own ways, but most people watching this movie, just like in real life, will probably feel more comfortable watching a smooth entertainer like Cooke instead of a restless firebrand like Malcolm X.

The character of Jim Brown is written as a fairly bland and passive person, so Hodge can’t really do much but react to what’s going on around him. However, since Jim is the one who’s the mostly like to be the “peacemaker” in the group, his character is crucial in the moments where the four friends find common ground and have positive interactions with each other. Jim is the “nice guy” of the group, but unfortunately his character also seems two-dimensional. There’s very little indication of what Jim is passionate about, since he wants to leave football behind to become an actor, not for the love of the craft but just so he can become a movie star.

People who know Muhammad Ali as a larger-than-life personality will be surprised to see that he’s not really written as the character who outshines everyone in this movie. Malcolm and Sam definitely upstage everyone else. And that’s because it’s made pretty clear that this boxing champ wasn’t known yet as outspoken activist Muhammad Ali. He was Cassius Clay, a guy in his early 20s who was still finding his identity. Goree’s portrayal of Cassius sometimes veers into a try-hard impersonation that could have devolved into a terrible parody, but he shows enough restraint not to turn the character into an embarrassing caricature.

King’s direction of the movie is solid and gives viewers a clear sense of each location’s atmosphere in each scene. The production design and costume design are well-done, while the cinematography makes the scenes feel observational yet intimate. Although adapting this stage play into a movie results in some extra thrills for the singing and boxing scenes, the movie’s most powerful moments are inside a simple hotel room with just the four main characters. Everything else just seems like frosting on the cake. “One Night in Miami…” is by no means a completely insightful portrait of the four men at the center of the story, but the movie serves as an effective snapshot of what their interpersonal dynamics might have been like in their leisure time together.

Amazon Studios released “One Night in Miami…” in Miami on December 25, 2020, and expanded the release to more U.S. cinemas on January 8, 2021. Amazon Prime Video premiered the movie on January 15, 2021.

2020 IFP Gotham Awards: ‘Nomadland’ is the top winner

January 11, 2021

by Carla Hay

With two prizes, including Best Feature, “Nomadland” was the top winner at 2020 IFP Gotham Awards. The winners were announced in New York City on January 11, 2021. “Nomadland,” a drama directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Frances McDormand as a widow who lives out of her van, also received the Gotham Audience Award, which is voted on by IFP members. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is renaming itself the Gotham Film & Media Institute, also known as The Gotham.

Best Actress went to Nicole Beharie of “Miss Juneteenth,” while Best Actor went to Riz Ahmed of “Sound of Metal.” Breakthrough Actor (a category for people of any gender) was awarded to “One Night in Miami…” actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who portrays Malcolm X in the movie.

There were two categories that resulted in ties in winners: Best Documentary was awarded to director Ramona S. Diaz’s “A Thousand Cuts” (about Filipina journalist Maria Ressa’s battles with government backlash in the Philippines) and director Garrett Bradley’s “Time,” a movie spanning decades about Louisiana woman Fox Rich’s quest to get her husband released from prison. The Best Screenplay award also resulted in two winners: Radha Blank’s “The Forty-Year-Old Version” (a comedy about a female playwright who decides to become a rapper at 40 years old) and Dan Sallitt’s “Fourteen,” a comedy about a mentally ill woman.

This was the first Gotham Awards show to have TV categories. The winners were both from HBO: the superhero drama “Watchmen” for Breakthrough Series – Long Format and the #MeToo drama “I May Destroy You” for Breakthrough Series – Short Format.

In non-competitive categories, the Film Tribute Award went to actress Viola Davis, actor Chadwick Boseman, filmmaker Steve McQueen and the Netflix drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” “Westworld” actor Jeffrey Wright received the Made in New York award, which is given to entertainers who were raised in New York City or have strong ties to New York.

The Western drama “First Cow” went into the ceremony with the most nominations (four), but ended up not winning any IFP Gotham Awards.

Here is the complete list of nominees and winners of the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards:

*=winner

Best Feature

The Assistant

Kitty Green, director; Kitty Green, Scott Macaulay, James Schamus, P. Jennifer Dana, Ross Jacobson, producers (Bleecker Street)

First Cow

Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani, producers (A24)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Eliza Hittman, director; Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, producers (Focus Features)

Nomadland*

Chloé Zhao, director; Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloé Zhao, producers (Searchlight Pictures)

Relic

Natalie Erika James, director; Anna Mcleish, Sarah Shaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, producers (IFC Midnight)

Best Documentary

76 Days

Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous, directors; Hao Wu, Jean Tsien, producers (MTV Documentary Films)

City Hall

Frederick Wiseman, director; Frederick Wiseman, Karen Konicek, producers (Zipporah Films)

Our Time Machine

Yang Sun, S. Leo Chiang directors; S. Leo Chiang, Yang Sun, producers (Passion River Films)

A Thousand Cuts* (tie)

Ramona S. Diaz, director; Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (PBS Distribution | FRONTLINE )

Time* (tie)

Garrett Bradley, director; Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley, producers (Amazon Studios)

Best International Feature

Bacurau

Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles, directors; Emilie Lesclaux, Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt, producers (Kino Lorber)

Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov, director; Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov, producers (Kino Lorber)

Cuties (Mignonnes)

Maïmouna Doucouré, director; Zangro, producer (Netflix)

Identifying Features*

Fernanda Valadez, director; Astrid Rondero, producer (Kino Lorber)

Martin Eden

Pietro Marcello, director; Pietro Marcello, Beppe Caschetto, Thomas Ordonneau, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, producers (Kino Lorber)

Wolfwalkers

Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, directors; Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stéphan Roelants, producers (Apple)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Radha Blank for The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)

Channing Godfrey Peoples for Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)

Alex Thompson for Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Carlo Mirabella-Davis for Swallow (IFC Films)

Andrew Patterson for The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)*

Best Screenplay

Bad Education, Mike Makowsky (HBO)

First Cow, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt (A24)

The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank (Netflix)*

Fourteen, Dan Sallitt (Grasshopper Film)*

The Vast of Night, James Montague, Craig Sanger (Amazon Studios)

Best Actor

Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)*

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)

Jude Law in The Nest (IFC Films)

John Magaro in First Cow (A24)

Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Best Actress

Nicole Beharie in Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)*

Jessie Buckley in I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari (A24)

Carrie Coon in The Nest (IFC Films)

Frances McDormand in Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Breakthrough Actor

Jasmine Batchelor in The Surrogate (Monument Releasing)

Kingsley Ben-Adir in One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)*

Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)

Orion Lee in First Cow (A24)

Kelly O’Sullivan in Saint Frances (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Breakthrough Series – Long Format (over 40 minutes)

The Great, Tony McNamara, creator; Tony McNamara, Marian Macgowan, Mark Winemaker, Elle Fanning, Brittany Kahan Ward, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Josh Kesselman, Ron West, Matt Shakman, executive producers (Hulu)

Immigration Nation, Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson, executive producers (Netflix)

P-Valley, Katori Hall, creator; Katori Hall, Dante Di Loreto, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Liz W. Garcia, executive producers (STARZ)

Unorthodox, Anna Winger, Alexa Karolinski , creators; Anna Winger, Henning Kamm, executive producers (Netflix)

Watchmen, Damon Lindelof, Creator for Television; Tom Spezialy , Nicole Kassell , Stephen Williams, Joseph E. Iberti, executive producers (HBO)*

Breakthrough Series – Short Format (under 40 minutes)

Betty, Crystal Moselle, Lesley Arfin, Igor Srubshchik, Jason Weinberg, executive producers (HBO)

Dave, Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, creators; Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer, Saladin K. Patterson, Greg Mottola, Kevin Hart, Marty Bowen, Scooter Braun, Mike Hertz, Scott Manson, James Shin, executive producers (FX Networks)

I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel, creator; Michaela Coel, Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni, executive producers (HBO)*

Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi, David Shadrack Smith, Sarina Roma, executive producers (Hulu)

Work in Progress, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, creators, Abby McEnany, Tim Mason, Lilly Wachowski, Lawrence Mattis, Josh Adler, Ashley Berns, Julia Sweeney, Tony Hernandez, executive producers (SHOWTIME)