Andra Day is very talented and she definitely has potential as an actress with the right director and screenplay. Her singing is excellent in the film - she hits every one of Billie Holiday's hauntingly earthy inflections. The problem is the film itself. It is very confusing with characters in and out who are not explained. We don't learn a lot of substance about Billie Holiday's life - at least anything verifiable - except what we already knew from Lady Sings the Blues. Perhaps my expectations were too high, no pun intended, but I expected this film to give audiences a more intimate picture of her life - her as a complex woman, not just a singing caricature with a heroin needle in her arm. Instead, this is another one of those biopics where the lead actor or actress does more character imitation than provide true insights into the actual subject and her life. This is also one of those films where the singing goes on far too long, but when that happens you know it's because the writing and screenplay are usually thin and the music is used to overcompensate for that. One of the most disturbing things for me is that the film shows a lot of men in and out of her life, and even tries to create romance out of a viciously violent relationship, her and Lewis McCabe. I need films to stop pretending that Black women love to have their asses stomped by the men in their lives. That's NOT love so don't sugar coat it on film. It's even worse that this is a very light complected woman who never has a single bruise on her face when we see her, even as he's constantly smacking and punching her. I think this film probably could have been a lot better with a different director and certainly with a much better screenplay.
Review of The United States vs. Billie Holiday
