Golden Globe Winner Andra Day a Sight to Behold in The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Written By Matthew Sadowski
Earning its star a Golden Globe, The United States vs. Billie Holiday joins the ranks of recent acclaimed musical biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocket Man. However, Holiday more closely resembles older biographical films like Walk the Line, and Ray, carrying a sorrowful aura throughout much of the story and emphasizing its artist’s own despair at her own, sometimes self-inflicted, failures. But, like Bohemian Rhapsody, Billie Holiday also does not fully commit to a core theme, painting its subjects in relatively broad strokes while trying to be specific. Nevertheless, Billie Holiday is made a haunting and beautiful movie-watching experience by its astounding lead, Andra Day.
In the late 1940’s, gifted singer Billie Holiday (Day) became a household name with both blacks and whites. She is best known for crooning songs about love and loss, but has gained considerable attention for her shockingly graphic song, “Strange Fruit,” about the horrific practice of lynching. The FBI has entrusted Harry Anslinger (Garret Hedlund) to silence Holiday by attempting to lock her away on narcotics charges. Anslinger assigns Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), one of the first black federal agents, to monitor Holiday. Fletcher and Holiday, however, begin an affair that strains Holiday’s relationships with her band and management. As the pressure mounts on Fletcher to dig up some dirt, and Holiday wrestles with the controversy that “Strange Fruit” causes, she must balance her life as a performer and activist while wrestling with her heroin addiction.
As mentioned, Andra Day’s soft, raspy performance is amazing and totally worthy of whatever more awards are certainly coming her way. But the movie, sadly, is unable to focus on what it implies the key factor in Holiday’s career to be: the controversy around “Strange Fruit.” The song is mentioned occasionally, we see in an unsettling dream sequence just how personal it is to her, and the moment when she finally does sing it is breathtaking, but aside from the FBI, we never learn what the public believes about the song. Because of this, the few moments that the song is talked about doesn’t have nearly as much weight as it should.
In the end, Day’s performance absolutely outweighs the flawed writing and is more than worth a watch.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Starring: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Miss Freddie, Tyler James Williams
2021
130min
Streaming on: Hulu
We also provide red carpet hosting services as guests walk into your event one of our hosts will interview the guest. Photographyis one of our services feel free to contact at anytime 24 hours a day.