The United States vs. Billie Holiday
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Starring Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garrett Hedlund
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garrett Hedlund
Directed by Lee Daniels
There are some performances that transcend the script that the actor or actress was given, a role that said performer gives it all they got despite a lackluster story, that elevates the film beyond something utterly terrible to something somewhat passable. Such is the case with Andra Day's performance in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday," a supposed biopic about one of the most influential and powerful African American singers, who changed hearts and minds through her powerful ballad "Strange Fruit." Yet what was delivered wasn't as much a biopic as it was a hodgepodge of different scenes that were hastily edited together, featuring recurring side characters you don't know, including a shoe-horned love story that never really happened, and portrayed Holiday simply as a heroin addict destroyed by the events of her past who cycled through abusive men and who seemingly had no real joy in life.
Billie Holiday (Andra Day) rose to prominence during the racist 1940s, when Black men and women were being lynched and the government was doing nothing to help them. It was during this time she released the song "Strange Fruit," which talked about the lynchings and the government's inability (or, more adequately, lack of desire) to help, which angered higher ups including J. Edgar Hoover and Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), who wanted Billie's voice silenced. They knew she had a heroin addiction, and if they could pin a drug charge on her, that'll be the end of her as she'll sit in prison for the rest of her life.
To find the dirt on Billie, they enlist one of the first Black FBI agents, Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), to go undercover and infiltrate Billie's inner circle to get the goods on her. He accomplishes this, and while Billie sits in prison, he re-thinks his actions, understanding that it wasn't about a war on drugs, but rather a war on Blacks. After her release, the two reconnect and begin a romantic relationship, all the while dealing with Billie's continued drug use, promiscuous nature, and other self-destructive tendencies that threatens the songbird's life from within, as Anslinger continues to hunt her down in the peripheral.
In this overly bloated film, director Lee Daniels portrays Billie Holiday simply as a junkie constantly looking for a fix, a woman who was so traumatized by childhood abuse that she relied on drugs, men, and fighting to get through each day. Its a misguided attempt to tell the story of a powerful African American female voice, who rose to prominence (and infamy) for singing "Strange Fruit" (a song written by Abel Meeropol and was performed by other women of the time before Holiday's made it a classic), and the government that had a one-trek mind to silence her voice forever by any legal means necessary. Yet despite this being a biopic about Holiday, there's no real substance to the woman that any Wikipedia page wouldn't let you know, and that might be because the real Holiday was reclusive and secretive, but still there had to be more to her than just drugs, abuse, and transcendent singing - we just don't see it.
R&B singer Andra Day makes her debut lead performance as Billie, and she is the saving grace of the film. She performs like a seasoned professional, giving Holiday the substance and heart that the script didn't allow for. We see her in scene after scene doing the same self-destructive acts, and if it was any other actress, we wouldn't have sat through this two-hour mental and physical torture porn of a biopic, but we become invested in her performance from the very start, and that's what pulls us in to make us sit through this virtual trainwreck of a story. Her performance was so acclaimed she earned a Golden Globe win against heavyweights like Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, Carey Mulligan and Vanessa Kirby, and more than likely will also receive an Oscar nod for her ethereal performance.
Apart from that, the film is filled with historical inaccuracies, repetitive dialogue that takes place in different scenes with different background characters, needles shot into countless arms, gratuitous nudity, repeated abusive relationships, men beating on men, men beating on women, women beating on men, and some stellar vocal performances in-between. There's also the side story of Jimmy Fletcher's struggle with doing the right thing, but that's never really realized in the film and is treated as an afterthought. Trevante Rhodes gives a commendable performance as his character realizes that he was duped by the white man to turn on his own kind in the name of the war on drugs, but in actuality was done because they wanted to silence her voice from performing "Strange Fruit" - which, as a song that's so vital for the African American community then and now, was merely a selling point for the film and never really had any substance to the story except for one sweeping motion where Holiday witnesses a lynching herself and defiantly sings the song, which is the best part of the film. Other than that, the song is mentioned again and again, but there's no depth to it other than being the reason the government is after her.
"The United States vs. Billie Holiday" is a one-note biopic that highlights all of Holiday's negative aspects and never showcasing her positives, a film that's more torture porn than story, but one that's heightened by the overly-committed performance of first-time performer Andra Day.
The Score: C+
Billie Holiday (Andra Day) rose to prominence during the racist 1940s, when Black men and women were being lynched and the government was doing nothing to help them. It was during this time she released the song "Strange Fruit," which talked about the lynchings and the government's inability (or, more adequately, lack of desire) to help, which angered higher ups including J. Edgar Hoover and Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), who wanted Billie's voice silenced. They knew she had a heroin addiction, and if they could pin a drug charge on her, that'll be the end of her as she'll sit in prison for the rest of her life.
To find the dirt on Billie, they enlist one of the first Black FBI agents, Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), to go undercover and infiltrate Billie's inner circle to get the goods on her. He accomplishes this, and while Billie sits in prison, he re-thinks his actions, understanding that it wasn't about a war on drugs, but rather a war on Blacks. After her release, the two reconnect and begin a romantic relationship, all the while dealing with Billie's continued drug use, promiscuous nature, and other self-destructive tendencies that threatens the songbird's life from within, as Anslinger continues to hunt her down in the peripheral.
In this overly bloated film, director Lee Daniels portrays Billie Holiday simply as a junkie constantly looking for a fix, a woman who was so traumatized by childhood abuse that she relied on drugs, men, and fighting to get through each day. Its a misguided attempt to tell the story of a powerful African American female voice, who rose to prominence (and infamy) for singing "Strange Fruit" (a song written by Abel Meeropol and was performed by other women of the time before Holiday's made it a classic), and the government that had a one-trek mind to silence her voice forever by any legal means necessary. Yet despite this being a biopic about Holiday, there's no real substance to the woman that any Wikipedia page wouldn't let you know, and that might be because the real Holiday was reclusive and secretive, but still there had to be more to her than just drugs, abuse, and transcendent singing - we just don't see it.
R&B singer Andra Day makes her debut lead performance as Billie, and she is the saving grace of the film. She performs like a seasoned professional, giving Holiday the substance and heart that the script didn't allow for. We see her in scene after scene doing the same self-destructive acts, and if it was any other actress, we wouldn't have sat through this two-hour mental and physical torture porn of a biopic, but we become invested in her performance from the very start, and that's what pulls us in to make us sit through this virtual trainwreck of a story. Her performance was so acclaimed she earned a Golden Globe win against heavyweights like Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, Carey Mulligan and Vanessa Kirby, and more than likely will also receive an Oscar nod for her ethereal performance.
Apart from that, the film is filled with historical inaccuracies, repetitive dialogue that takes place in different scenes with different background characters, needles shot into countless arms, gratuitous nudity, repeated abusive relationships, men beating on men, men beating on women, women beating on men, and some stellar vocal performances in-between. There's also the side story of Jimmy Fletcher's struggle with doing the right thing, but that's never really realized in the film and is treated as an afterthought. Trevante Rhodes gives a commendable performance as his character realizes that he was duped by the white man to turn on his own kind in the name of the war on drugs, but in actuality was done because they wanted to silence her voice from performing "Strange Fruit" - which, as a song that's so vital for the African American community then and now, was merely a selling point for the film and never really had any substance to the story except for one sweeping motion where Holiday witnesses a lynching herself and defiantly sings the song, which is the best part of the film. Other than that, the song is mentioned again and again, but there's no depth to it other than being the reason the government is after her.
"The United States vs. Billie Holiday" is a one-note biopic that highlights all of Holiday's negative aspects and never showcasing her positives, a film that's more torture porn than story, but one that's heightened by the overly-committed performance of first-time performer Andra Day.
The Score: C+
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