Movies Update: ‘One Night in Miami’ and More

January 15, 2021

By Mekado Murphy

Movies Editor

Hey, movie fans!

Even though the Academy Awards won’t be until April this year, the Oscar season is nonetheless still upon us. Kyle Buchanan is already making predictions in the best actor category and A. O. Scott is pointing you in the direction of a couple of would-be contenders available this week.

On Amazon is “One Night in Miami,” the feature directing debut of Regina King, which spends an evening in a hotel room with Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown. Scott calls it “an intellectual thriller, crackling with the energy of ideas and emotions as they happen.”

On demand is “MLK/FBI,” about the ways the F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover dug into the private life of King. Scott calls this documentary “at once suspenseful, visually engrossing and intellectually bracing.”

If you’re looking for a little pandemic drama onscreen, HBO Max has “Locked Down,” which features Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor sheltering in an unhappy place. And if you’re looking for a group of movie lovers eager to share their tastes, hop on over to the ever-growing social media network for cinephiles, Letterboxd, which we profiled this week.

Enjoy the movies!

Patti Perret/Amazon Studios

critic’s pick

‘One Night in Miami’ Review: After the Big Fight, a War of Words

A 1964 meeting of Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown is the subject of Regina King’s riveting directorial debut.

By A.O. Scott

IFC Films

Critic’s Pick

‘MLK/FBI’ Review: King, Hoover and the Tale of the Tape

Sam Pollard’s fascinating documentary chronicles the F.B.I. director’s obsession with the private life and political affiliations of the civil rights leader.

By A.O. Scott

Micaiah Carter for The New York Times

Regina King: Speaking Truth to Power Through Her Art

The actress-turned-director of “One Night in Miami” explains why she sees the fact-based drama about a meeting of four icons as a companion piece to “Watchmen.”

By Salamishah Tillet

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CRITICS’ PICKS

Mircea Topoleanu/Zeitgeist Films

Critic’s pick

‘Acasa, My Home’ Review: Civilization and Its Malcontents

A family’s dispossession to make way for a nature park is the subject of this Romanian documentary.

By A.O. Scott

Cinema Guild

Critic’s Pick

‘Film About a Father Who’ Review: Family Secrets by Omission

In her new documentary, Lynne Sachs assesses her relationship with her father, Ira Sachs Sr., who fathered children with multiple women.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Magnolia Pictures

Critic’s Pick

‘Some Kind of Heaven’ Review: Hardly an Idle Retirement

This documentary co-produced by The New York Times visits a retirement community the size of a small city.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Film Movement

Critic’s Pick

‘My Little Sister’ Review: Sibling Dependency

A cancer diagnosis only strengthens the bond between adult twins in this perceptive Swiss drama.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Entertainment

Anatomy of a Scene

Watch Gal Gadot Fight Crime at the Mall in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

The director Patty Jenkins narrates a sequence from her movie, streaming on HBO Max.

By Mekado Murphy

MOVIE REVIEWS

‘Locked Down’ Review: In Quarantine, Misery Hates Company

Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor play a couple sheltering in their London brownstone over the early weeks of the pandemic in this irritating heist comedy.

By Natalia Winkelman

‘Outside the Wire’ Review: At War With the Robots

This Netflix film starring Anthony Mackie is neither curious nor bold in the ways it depicts a sentient robotic revolt.

By Robert Daniels

‘The Marksman’ Review: In Need of a Mission

Liam Neeson plays the reluctant protector of an undocumented Mexican boy in this dusty drama.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

‘Don’t Tell a Soul’ Review: Brothers in Crime Harbor a Secret

It’s not every day you get to see Rainn Wilson at the bottom of a well, and that’s just the half of it.

By Glenn Kenny

‘Bloody Hell’ Review: An Acrid Thriller Bites Off Too Much

Cannibals and comedy are mixed in this deranged ride from the director Alister Grierson.

By Teo Bugbee

‘American Skin’ Review: Out for Justice

In Nate Parker’s film, a father takes matters into his own hands to hold a police officer to account for shooting down his son.

By Nicolas Rapold

‘Hunted’ Review: Catch Me if You Can

Riffing on “Little Red Riding Hood,” this sadistic chase movie sends a young woman and two attackers into the deep, dark woods.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

‘Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy’ Review: A Brisk Look Back at a Crisis

Veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson crafts a somewhat cursory primer on the 1980s crack epidemic.

By Devika Girish

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NEWS & FEATURES

Birgit Krippner for The New York Times

Is Letterboxd Becoming a Blockbuster?

The social media network has finally left the cinephile niche and entered the mainstream.

By Calum Marsh

Robert Yager for The New York Times

What Happens Now to Michael Apted’s Lifelong Project ‘Up’?

His documentary series chronicled the lives of its subjects every seven years since 1964. Now the participants ponder whether it can carry on without him.

By Joe Coscarelli