'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' Review
R
Runtime: 2 Hrs and 10 Minutes
Production Companies: Lee Daniels Entertainment, New Slate Ventures, Roth/Kirschenbaum Films
Distributor: Hulu
Director: Lee Daniels
Writer: Suzan-Lori Parks
Cast: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garrett Hedlund
Release Date: February 26, 2021
Hulu
The legendary Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe, all while the Federal Department of Narcotics targeted her with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
Three years ago, singer Andra Day did a cover of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”. Now, she portrays Holiday in Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday. The only good thing I have to say about the film is that despite its many faults, Andra Day gives 100% in her portrayal of Holiday. Considering this is her first leading role, Day does her best to deliver a show-stopping performance with her raw energy and gumption. The scenes where she’s on stage mimicking Holiday's voice through covers of her classic songs are impressive. Day has her own signature voice that’s so damn beautiful to listen to. To hear her step out of her natural self and sing like the figure she’s portraying is the major hallmark that makes her debut leading role notable, to say the least.
That being said, as much as I want to give Day the benefit of the doubt and be as earnest as I can regarding her performance, this movie actively clips her wings.
Throughout this entire awards season, I’ve watched many historical dramas centered around figures who went up against the white ass American government. I was, to be blunt, quite exhausted. After films such as The Trial of the Chicago Seven, MLK/FBI, and Judas and the Black Messiah, the last thing I wanted to watch was a movie titled The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Hell, I received this screener around the same time I received Judas and the Black Messiah, but my stomach couldn’t handle both. There has been a great deal of procrastination leading up to me finally watching The United States vs. Billie Holiday and man… this has to be the worst thing Lee Daniels has produced since season two of Empire. I’m sorry, is that too kind? Let me be more clear. The United States vs. Billie Holiday has to be one of the worst biopics I’ve ever seen in my life thus far. It’s worse than Bohemian Rhapsody and maybe even worse than All Eyez On Me.
The film has absolutely no idea how to set the ground floor and tell a story about the most crucial moment in Holiday’s career, nor does it know how to tell a coherent story with a consistent timeline. The film starts off with a journalist named Reginald Lord Devine (Leslie Jordan) interviewing Billie Holiday in 1957 and her relationship with the controversial song “Strange Fruit”. That scene is used as a framing device for Devine to start the story, taking it back to ten years prior where Holiday performed at clubs in New York. From there, you’re introduced to Jimmy Fletcher, a Black cop disguised as a soldier to get close to Holiday and frame her for narcotics.
If you’re already confused by that initial setup, then the film will do double damage when you watch it play out. At first, the constant narration from Devine prevents you from settling into a timeframe, but once it whittles away, the film immediately becomes a completely incoherent mess.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday is one of the worst kinds of biopics that takes a larger-than-life icon whose important works inspired countless generations and depicts them as a caricature. Holiday is not seen as a human being but is instead depicted as a shallow trainwreck and an abused victim with no soul. There is no room for humanity for Billie Holiday because, through the lens of Daniels and the screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, she wasn’t a human being. The film only shows Holiday facing a relentless series of traumatic struggles and hardships in her career until her untimely death. Much like how I felt towards Parks' screenplay for Native Son, The United States vs. Billie Holiday is yet another movie that felt like a first draft that was rushed to production.
Though it’s true that Holiday faced hardships in her life regarding drug abuse, the film emphasizes that aspect so hard that it can’t spend five minutes without graphically depicting Holiday shooting heroin in her arm. Otherwise, she’s being physically punched about by whoever Holiday is either working with or dating.
This film just screams “Lee Daniels” because whenever he has a film focused on a Black woman, he puts them through the wringer, making them look like a victim case rather than an actual human being. Every Black man is written like a trifling piece of shit, as conniving and evil as a dark-skinned male in a Tyler Perry movie. If you’re the white dudes on the Federal Bureau of Narcotics or a white dude in general, you’re written like the racist supervillains straight out of the Legion of Doom. This biopic feels like it was written by Riley from The Boondocks or like something Aaron McGruder would satirize.
The screenplay is so damn vapid where every single character, real or not, comes across as an aggressive, abusive, and shallow asshole. The only cast member who is actually depicted as a somewhat decent human being is Natasha Lyonne, who plays actress Tallulah Bankhead. She’s there for a short amount of time simply to hit the surface-level rumor of her relationship with Holiday. By the time you finally distinguish Lyonne’s voice from Day’s (because they really do have the same raspy nature in their voices), she’s gone from the picture.
This film undoubtedly features the worst editing I’ve seen in years, and this is coming from someone who gave Bohemian Rhapsody shit for its ridiculous win at the Academy Awards. This has to be a prime example of a poorly paced biopic. The film rushes through so many events without letting you breathe that you’re already emotionally drained 30 minutes in. Once it finally finds its pacing, it’s still so damn dull and poorly stitched together. I’m sorry for mentioning this movie as my major point of reference but at least Bohemian Rhapsody knew how to pace itself. It was never too dull. It was hollow and flashy, but for a two-hour runtime, it went by rather quickly. The United States vs. Billie Holiday somehow manages to drag on while also feeling rushed.
There’s never a moment where you can relax and settle into the story, for it keeps jumping all over the goddamn place. Throughout the majority of the film, I had no idea where the hell I was at, what year the scene was set in, or what point in her career was being focused on. It’s so damn incoherent as it switches back and forth in time, shifting focus between characters who take up more screen time than the titular lead.
The movie is called The United States vs. Billie Holiday and for some reason, despite its underdeveloped framing device, which adds no weight to the story itself contextually, much of the focus is put on Fletcher. Yeah, the cop who actively tries to convict Holiday of drug possession, being the Federal Bureau’s mule, is given a full arc. Though you came for Billie Holiday, you’re left with a rushed arc about a Black cop betraying his own people and it’s told in such a meddling, hollow manner. Meanwhile, Judas and The Black Messiah is sitting right there on HBO Max as the superior alternative.
Despite the effort put into production design and costuming to make it look like a historical epic biopic, those attributes are completely hampered by glaring flaws riddled throughout each scene. The color grading is inconsistent, the lighting doesn’t reflect anything of cinematic quality, and the usage of crossfades and transitions is downright laughable.
I’m so damn tired of Hollywood constantly giving audiences a heaping pile of garbage for a biopic, with the only diamond in that garbage being the lead’s performance, and then gunning to shower it with awards. I hate that mentality because it’s only gonna enable other mediocre ass movies of that nature and we’ll be going through that same cycle over and over again. We saw it with Bohemian Rhapsody, we saw it with Judy, and fuck me we’re seeing it again with this film. When we get an actual standout biopic — one that breaks conventions and has an identity of its own (Cc: Rocketman) — it gains no traction. Well, I’ve just about had it because this is the bottom of the barrel. You know you’ve severely fucked up your film if you have me complimenting Bohemian Rhapsody.
Andra Day gave 1000% in The United States vs. Billie Holiday and it shows. I want her to succeed and have a career in film, but this movie is a complete disservice to her talent… yet not as much as it is a disservice to Billie Holiday. You deadass looked at Billie Holiday and depicted her as a lifeless celebrity without a soul. She made one of the best songs of all time, yet you painted her as a shallow figure only to be drugged and abused without remorse for two hours straight. Not only is this insulting to Holiday, but it also wasted my fucking time and drained my energy.
