The United States vs. Billie Holiday

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."

  • Released: 2021-03-31
  • Runtime: 131 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, History, Music
  • Stars: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Adriane Lenox, Natasha Lyonne, Rob Morgan, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams, Tone Bell, Blake DeLong, Dana Gourrier, Melvin Gregg, Erik LaRay Harvey, Ray Shell, Dusan Dukic, Koumba Ball, Kate MacLellan, Kwasi Songui, Letitia Brookes, Warren 'Slim' Williams, Orville Thompson, Jeff Corbett, Damian Joseph Quinn, Robert Alan Beuth, Randy Davison, Kevin Hanchard, Jono Townsend, Morgan Moore, Arlen John Bonnar, Furly Mac, Andrew Zadel, Tristan D. Lalla, Alex Bisping, Don Anderson, Amanda Strawn, Charleine Charles, Sylvia Stewart, DaphnĂ© Archer, Anita Lee, Tony Chao, Linda SauvĂ©, Alain Goulem, Ramona Clyke, Laurent Beaudin, Alika Autran, Kim Feeney, Diana Carmen Ratycz, Richard Jutras, Jonathan Higgins, Marc Essertaize, Nealla Gordon, Len Blavatnik, Christopher Ricardo Price, Taryn Brown, Zuri Hawkins, Elizabeth Eveillard, Clauter Alexandre, Penande Estime, Elikya Tupula, Nefertari Zanyah Brewster-Griffith, Joe Cobden, Ronda Louis-Jeune, Maxime Paradis, Sarah Levesque, Donald Fullilove
  • Director: Lee Daniels
 Comments
  • cheriemonroe - 19 September 2023
    Andra Day Did Amazing 10/10
    Let's be clear this was not intended to be a full biopic of her life. It's mainly based off her last few years living. And the struggle of not only of being a strong black woman in America. Nothing here is sugarcoated and I do believe that was Lee Daniel intentions. It's raw, it's uncut but yet also beautiful and emotional. We get to see her not so glamorous side, The beauty was in the struggle itself. She was an activist for freedom and strange fruit meant so much to her. And they show that in this film as well. I appreciate this film and if didn't like it give it another chance rewatch it. 10.
  • Davalon-Davalon - 16 November 2022
    Andra Day is a revelation, but...
    Andra Day is the main reason to see this movie. She is fearless. She became "Billie Holiday" to the point where I thought I was watching Billie Holiday. At first, I thought she had to be lip-synching, but when I learned that she did her own singing (and... who else can sing like Billie Holiday?), my level of respect for her skyrocketed. She was superb on all levels.

    That said: this story is all over the place. It tries to cover all of Billie's life, and it does so in a haphazard way. It also casually injects black-and-white archival footage from the time-period, as well as occasionally having brief moments of the movie change from color to black-and-white. It was jarring and ineffective.

    The next issue was the vast number of characters to try and keep straight. It's supposed to be about Billie Holiday, but it spends an inordinate amount of time setting up Trevante Rhodes's character, "Jimmy Fletcher," the Black man who worked for the "Feds" under the monstrous "Harry Anslinger" (Garrett Hedlund), whose enormous capacity for hate for the Black race, particularly for Billie, could fill the Grand Canyon.

    In addition, there are many, many people in Billie's orbit, all of whom may have been part of her life, but I do not think they were necessary in this movie. But because they were in the film, screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks felt compelled to give them lines to justify their presence. Sorry, but they didn't make that much of a difference.

    Also: the movie wants to make it clear that Billie and white actress/personality Tallulah Bankhead (played by the completely miscast Natasha Lyonne, who doesn't make a remote effort to emulate Tallulah's distinctive voice and laugh) had some kind of on/off torrid affair, but it's clear from various trailers and publicity shots that a lot of the scenes with Tallulah (including a torrid kiss) were cut (at least from the version I saw).

    The Tallulah thread is one example of a story that was not essential to make part of this film. The trigger of this film was Billie's insistence on singing the shocking, sad, disturbing, brilliant "Strange Fruit," a tragic and poetic song about the lynching of Black people. The "Feds" didn't want Billie to sing it because they felt it would cause race riots or more. And so, Anslinger must create some other reason to keep Billie off the stage, which he does by getting her arrested for drugs. But he does that by apparently paying off certain horrid men in Billie's life who plant the drugs on her. It was laughable. The one man who was supposedly her manager (Lester Young? I'm sorry, too many characters and I could not remember them all), who was making plenty of money off her, decides to plant drugs on her so the Feds can arrest her, effectively ending his gravy train? It made no sense at all.

    The movie is way too long. If they really wanted to cover as much territory as they did, they should have made it a limited series. That would have been much, much better.

    That said, Andra Day is amazing and has extraordinary gifts as an actress and singer. And Trevante Rhodes is outstanding and beautiful, but I fear he was not used well in this film, as they asked him to be a federal agent working against his own people, a rich son with a privileged life and a nice home (with a black maid!), Billie's eventual lover, a person who tries heroine one time because... ?, and finally someone whose life doesn't add up to much once Billie's on her way out.

    The ending scenes are powerful, especially between Billie and Harry, when she tells him off in the most delicious way. The scene following, where Jimmy makes it clear why Harry hates Billie so much is a great scene, but it sounds very modern. They should have ended it with Billie slaying Harry with her very, very sharp wit.

    10 stars + for Andra, and about an 8+ for Trevante, but the rest of the film is all over the map and I can't give it more than 6, and that's pushing it.
  • nlsteven-attheMovies - 24 November 2021
    Legendary Blues
    The UsvBH would have been a better film if its plot had a better focus - instead it zig-zags through a myriad of gruesome BLM experiences, a tragic bio story and musical flings. Andra Day's debut acting performance shines though.
  • lauraacton-87102 - 28 September 2021
    Amazing
    Loved it, I didnt realise that it was actually Andra Day singing I thought it was Billies voice shes that good! Loved the film so dark but honest.