Who is popular today?

An imagined meeting in 1964 between young black trailblazers Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke speaks powerfully to the present
“Which of us doesn’t belong?” asks soul singer Sam Cooke (Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr), casting his gaze over the men in front of him. It’s 25 February 1964, and gathered with Cooke in a modest Miami Beach hotel room are political activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), NFL star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), who has just been crowned heavyweight boxing champion of the world. All four are, in Clay’s words, “young, black, righteous, unapologetic, famous”. Cooke’s provocation is the trick question at the heart of Regina King’s slick and energised directorial debut.
Written by Kemp Powers (co-writer and co-director of Pixar’s recent hit Soul) and based on his 2013 play of the same name, the film imagines the four men brought together to celebrate Clay’s win. Expecting a party with booze and girls, they are instead treated to vanilla ice-cream and a heated debate. “I thought we would reflect,” says Malcolm, spiritual mentor to Clay, who is on the brink of becoming Muhammad Ali and converting to the Nation of Islam. Continue reading...