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Movie Review: The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Mike Tyrkus

One of the greatest jazz musicians to have ever lived, Billie Holiday, is the subject of the latest film from director Lee Daniels, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, based on the book Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari. While the film is a heartfelt ode to a singular talent, it comes across as occasionally a bit too assured of its own merits and the dramatic power of its subject to be bothered to tether itself with telling the compelling story it has been gifted.

The film tracks Holliday’s career from the 1940s onward as she is heralded around the world by fans and hounded by the federal government ostensibly for her drug use. But, as it turns out, the incendiary song “Strange Fruit” protesting the lynching of African Americans is the impetus behind the government’s desire to silence her voice for fear that it could help ignite the burning embers of the civil rights movement.

As the legendary Holiday, Andra Day is simply amazing in a breakthrough role that encompasses far more than just rendering the singer’s iconic voice. Trevante Rhodes does as admirable job as the undercover federal agent tasked with getting the incriminating evidence on Holiday that the feds are so desperately in search of. Unfortunately, that is where the praises and highlights of the film end.

Andra Day in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Photo courtesy of Lee Daniels Entertainment.

The screenplay, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks delivers narrative heft some of the time, but it often feels as though the film started out in one type of musical biography mode and then suddenly switched to a more dramatic flourish, then morphing into something more mundane, before ultimately careening back and delivering a more over the top drama. This haphazard approach does not serve the narrative nearly as well as it should, especially if director Daniels intended it to simultaneously reflect the tumultuous times taking place within the historical confines of the film. Instead of doing so, the technique simply derails an otherwise compelling narrative.

That being said, Day’s performance as Holliday easily makes this film worthwhile, it is just a shame that overall product failed to end up better than The United States vs. Billie Holiday ultimately does and that makes for a far less interesting film than this singular talent deserved.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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