Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” was named the best song of the 20th century by Time Magazine. The fact its haunting, lyrical description of lynching continues to be relevant 82 years after release with the numerous unarmed Black bodies hijacked of life simply for being Black we see today proves that moniker true. Despite that level of significance, the song’s impact on society and Holiday has mainly gone undiscussed cinematically, with the exception of the 2020 documentary Billie. Director Lee Daniels uses his latest film to start that discussion and celebrate the oft-judged Holiday.
Starring Grammy-nominated recording artist Andra Day as the musical icon, The United States vs. Billie Holiday tells the story of the singer’s battle to continue her career in the face of a heroin addiction and attacks by the Federal Department of Narcotics to prevent her from performing the emblematic masterpiece. Does Daniels create a tale that’s fitting for the First Lady of Blues and her signature song?
On a scale of Mary J. Blige in Body Cam and Power: Book II to Queen Latifah (MJB being the worst), Day lands squarely in Latifah territory. That’s a pretty good landing spot for someone whose previous screen credits are bit parts as a nightclub singer in Marshall and a singing forklift in Cars 3.
Day’s immense vocal talents are a cheat code for the musical aspect of her performance. Already blessed with a voice tailor-made for jazz, Day is magic as she covers Holiday’s classics such as “All of Me” and “Solitude.” Her intonations aren’t a pitch-for-pitch match for Holiday, but her range and natural rasp give her the Contra extra 99 lives to do the icon justice.
The most impressive aspect of Day’s performance is her ability to live as Holiday away from the stage. Day excels at hitting every raw emotion that made Holiday someone who gave the world Heaven-sent talent while dealing with hellish destruction of her own and others’ making. She convincingly sells Holiday’s charm, fearlessness, and sensuality with the exact authenticity she gives to Holiday’s submission to heroin and abusive partners. Despite her limited film experience, Day should easily be in the awards conversations.
Beyond Day, there’s nothing more to discuss in front of the camera. It’s not for lack of talent because the film boasts talents such as Trevante Rhodes, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Rob Morgan, and Garrett Hedlund. The film’s structure reduced them to bystanders when they needed to have more significant roles.
Hellish destruction doesn’t just apply to what ultimately robbed the world of Lady Day because it accurately captures the writing and directing decisions for The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Despite having a subject rife with good stories, Daniels and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks found a way to make the worst film possible.
It seemed like Daniels and Parks did not have a clear understanding of what they wanted The United States vs. Billie Holiday to be. The film clumsily juggles being a traditional biopic, love story, and espionage film with none of the categories addressed long enough to make sense. Additionally, Daniels’s insistence on making everything as salacious as possible with gratuitous sex scenes and nudity takes the film further away from showing why “Strange Fruit” and this period in Holiday’s life are crucial to the icon’s legacy and American history.
Those fumbles caused many critical elements about the events of that time to be missed entirely or half-told, primarily a deeper look at how far and sinister the government went to silence her as the film’s title promises. A longer format such as a limited series or mini-series would have provided more time to address everything they touched appropriately and made for a much better product.
Everything good about The United States vs. Billie Holiday comes from Andra Day. In addition to showing the known commodity that is her musical talents, Day showed an incredible range by convincingly playing one of the most complex artists in music history. Knowing she did so while being very new to film makes it even more impressive. However, her awards-caliber performance was not enough to save Daniels from himself as his “flair” for the dramatic robbed the movie of any clear direction and its intention to honor Holiday. They removed all the strength from a woman whose strength is one of the main reasons she’s so revered.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a bearable watch if your focus is solely on Day. Otherwise, there are plenty of other alternatives that do a much better job of honoring and teaching about Lady Day.
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