‘One Night In Miami…’ On Amazon Is Proof Leslie Odom Jr. Is a Movie Star

Leslie Odom Jr. was widely agreed to be one of the best performers in Hamilton. And he was objectively excellent as Aaron Burr, the cautious foil to Alexander Hamilton’s spirited personality. If you thought that was mostly thanks to Odom’s incredible singing voice—not to mention the fact that composer Lin-Manuel Miranda gifted him two of the musical’s best numbers—think again. Odom is a phenomenal talent of both the stage and screen, and he proves he deserves a movie star career with One Night In Miami…, a new film that began streaming on Amazon Prime today.

Originally written as a play by Kemp Powers, who then adapted his script for the screen, One Night In Miami… tells the story of a historic meeting between Malcolm X (played by Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Odom Jr.) in a hotel room, the night after Ali won the heavyweight title over Sonny Liston. While that meeting really did happen, the conversation between the four men—all significant African American public figures at the height of the civil rights movement—is all from Powers’s imagination.

According to Slate critic Jack Hamilton, Powers’s take on singer/songwriter Sam Cooke is not entirely accurate. Hamilton argues the film mischaracterizes Cooke as an apolitical figure, in order to have him act as a foil to Malcolm X, who was adamant about getting famous Black Americans to use their platforms to fight racial discrimination. But though it may not be accurate, Odom’s performance as Cooke is incredibly affecting.

We meet him taking the stage at the Copacabana—in a shiny silver suit and hair much longer than his Hamilton look—where he bombs, badly, in front of the lackluster crowd. Odom, who is from Queens, adapts a flawless Mississippi accent for Cooke. He doesn’t overdo it—just sprinkles it over his own voice seamlessly. You instantly forget all your preconceived notions of Odom, the actor. This is not Aaron Burr from Hamilton. This is Sam Cooke in the year 1964. This is Odom completely immersing himself into a character. It’s brilliant, and I want to see more of it.

Odom has had a few film roles since Hamilton and before One Night, of course. He was a lead in the Cynthia Erivo Harriet Tubman biopic, Harriet; as well as in the indie post-apocalyptic romance, Only, opposite Freida Pinto. But what he proves with One Night is that he’s ready to be a Star with a capital S. His scenes with Kingsley Ben-Adir are particularly effective, the tension between the two men simmering until it boils over. Odom is all forced laughter and eye-rolls in response to Malcolm X’s thinly-veiled passive-aggressive comments until the activist finally pushes him too far. His ultimate moment of anger is not an explosion, but a quiet rage. The way Odom exits the hotel room—quick, determined, with one last hurt glance back before he slams the door—speaks far louder than shouting ever could.

Then, of course, there is Odom’s singing as Cooke, and, as always, he’s fabulous. It’s no surprise that he knows how to infuse his music with emotion—the man did sing “Wait For It,” after all. That said, I would happily watch Odom in any role moving forward, whether or not he gets a musical number. The man is that good.

Watch One Night In Miami... on Amazon Prime