I watched "The United States vs Billie Holiday" on Hulu, and this film literally left me drained. Andra Day nails her portrayal of Billie Holiday. She is sensational. But this film showcases what happens when a great performance ends up in an absolutely awful film.
The only time The United States vs Billie Holiday comes to life is when Andra Day is on-screen. She took trite dialogue and made it magic. And her version of Billie Holiday's songs were powerful, but when she sang "Strange Fruit", it gave me chills.
This biopic about the last years in Holiday's life, and how the authorities pursued and harassed her just because she refused to stop singing "Strange Fruit", is as average as it is lethargic. There is no real direction and Lee Daniels got lost and never found his way out of the weeds. There was no tension, no reason to be invested in any of these characters except Billie Holiday, and that was fully due to Andra Day. Then you had a way over-the-top dog's funeral, Roy Cohn ( Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel) and an insinuated lesbian relationship between Holiday and actress Tallulah Bankhead. Who knows if they had a thing....this film was splintering off in every direction imaginable, and it never found its center.
This was an ambitious film that never fulfilled its potential. Though Daniels has found his his niche in some areas, but this is not that niche. A truly skilled director and writer could have made a masterpiece, but Daniels and Suzan-Lori Parks, who wrote this schlock, never made the story and vision they had in their heads come to life, and that's a pity because the subject matter was there. I sincerely hope that Day wins an award for her performance, because she deserves it for making sweet tasting lemonade out of a hot mess of a film.
The only time The United States vs Billie Holiday comes to life is when Andra Day is on-screen. She took trite dialogue and made it magic. And her version of Billie Holiday's songs were powerful, but when she sang "Strange Fruit", it gave me chills.
This biopic about the last years in Holiday's life, and how the authorities pursued and harassed her just because she refused to stop singing "Strange Fruit", is as average as it is lethargic. There is no real direction and Lee Daniels got lost and never found his way out of the weeds. There was no tension, no reason to be invested in any of these characters except Billie Holiday, and that was fully due to Andra Day. Then you had a way over-the-top dog's funeral, Roy Cohn ( Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel) and an insinuated lesbian relationship between Holiday and actress Tallulah Bankhead. Who knows if they had a thing....this film was splintering off in every direction imaginable, and it never found its center.
This was an ambitious film that never fulfilled its potential. Though Daniels has found his his niche in some areas, but this is not that niche. A truly skilled director and writer could have made a masterpiece, but Daniels and Suzan-Lori Parks, who wrote this schlock, never made the story and vision they had in their heads come to life, and that's a pity because the subject matter was there. I sincerely hope that Day wins an award for her performance, because she deserves it for making sweet tasting lemonade out of a hot mess of a film.