Clockwise from left: Leslie Odom Jr, Aldis Hodge, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Eli Goree in a scene from “One Night in Miami” (2021).

Regina King knows how to make an entrance. From starring in films stretching back to her debut in 1991’s “Boyz N the Hood,” she’s given stunning performances for decades including her Oscar-winning turn in 2018’s “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

Now 30 years after stepping onto the silver screen, she steps behind the camera to deliver a powerful and gorgeously shot “One Night in Miami” as director (another successful first).

Inspired by a 1964 meeting between activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke, footballer Jim Brown and boxer Cassius Clay in X’s Hampton House Motel room after Clay’s win against Sonny Liston, the details of which the film dramatizes as no one really knows what was discussed.

Kemp Powers, writer of the film and the play it’s based on, imagined a deeply stirring conversation between the four great Black men at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the Jim Crow-era south.

We start out with the individual stories of each man: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is considering leaving the Nation of Islam, Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) plays for a unreceptive all-white crowd at the Copacabana nightclub, Clay (Goree) loses a fight at Wembley Stadium, Brown (Aldis Hodge) visits a warm but racist family friend in Georgia.

Their stories converge Feb. 25, 1964 in Miami, where Clay is named heavyweight champion of the world and the four return to X’s motel room for a supposed party. But it turns out that they are the only ones X has invited. They spend the night debating over bowls of vanilla ice cream and sneaky sips from Cooke’s flask about the movements taking place across the country, challenging X’s ideas of absolutes, Clay’s intentions on joining the Nation of Islam and Cooke’s embrace of inoffensive music to his white audience. The latter is the most interesting and powerful argument in the film — how celebrities can use their platforms as megaphones to important issues.

It is very clear that the film is based on a stage play and it’s no wonder that Odom Jr. and Ben-Adir are the strongest in the already strong cast as they are the ones with the most stage experience of the four leads. They both play the swings of high motion and subtle introspections with such ease that pulls you in with their electric protrails.

It can feel a little long with a couple of moments of exposition in the opening scenes that feel slightly forced, but the bulk of the one-room film shines through it, thanks to King.

She really directs the hell out of this, keeping the four leads in frame and cleverly uses the space to keep the audience engaged in everything around them — much like a play — sometimes focusing away from the main action briefly to study what is happening in the background.

Even with a couple of liberties taken with historical accuracy and the timeline, “One Night in Miami” remains consistently present and relevant thanks to King’s stunning direction, Powers’s beautiful script and solid acting throughout, leaving you with a gut-punching ending that sticks.

“One Night in Miami”

114 minutes

Rated R for language throughout

3.5 stars