THE UNITED STATES VS BILLIE HOLIDAY | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Lee Daniels (15, 140 mins)
Billie Holiday gets a sprawling, somewhat bloated biopic, big on period detail with a fantastic central performance that papers over some of its flaws. Taking in a tumultuous swathe of Holiday’s life as she fought off the attentions of the FBI, struggled with drug addiction and terrible relationship choices, there’s plenty of meat here for actor Andra Day to sink her teeth into.
Holiday’s song Strange Fruit proves a flashpoint for the attention of the FBI, with its vivid, disturbing depiction of the realities of race relations in the USA – an angry song Holiday always delivered with emotional gusto, to the displeasure of the FBI’s head of narcotics Harry Anslinger, here played with mustachioed bigotry by Garret Hedlund. Determined to silence Holiday, the FBI attempted to arrest her several times for drug possession, initially with the help of undercover black agent Jimmy Fletcher, played by Trevante Rhodes. Subsequently, though, he first aided Holiday – riddled with guilt about his previous entrapment and wrongdoing – then fell for her.
Daniels’ film captures the age well, mixing film stock and documentary footage in with the story and creating a real sense of smoky-jazz-club place. The film has some bravura moments, notably Holiday discovering a burning cross on tour in the South; the songs, sung by Andra Day as Holiday, are brilliantly realized. The script, sadly, is often very clunky, full of exposition and feeling a little aimless at times, occasional flashbacks not carrying the weight they should. Day shines above it all, however: foul-mouthed, determined, masochistic but cheating herself of happiness by returning to abusive manager/lover Louis Mackay, who subsequently stole her empire.
Chillingly, Holiday was arrested as she lay dying for possession of narcotics, passing away while chained to her hospital bed. The vindictiveness of those who wanted to silence a strong, successful black voice of dissent is painfully evident, years before Martin Luther King. Daniels’ film illustrates that for all her personal problems, Holiday cared for the plight of the black population in racist America.. Her powerful protest song still resonates today, sung superbly by Andra Day: no more trees should bear strange fruit.
Released on Sat 27 Feb on Sky Cinema. Info: here
words KEIRON SELF