Diandra Reviews It All- The United States vs Billie Holiday

There are two words often associated with Billie Holiday: legend and tragedy. She is the epitome of jazz, and, in a way, its roots: black trauma. Lee Daniel’s The United States vs Billie Holiday (TUSVBH) is a good film, but Andra Day’s performance is greatness. Thus, the movie, out February 26 on Hulu, lives and breathes according to Andra’s every acting choice.

The United States VS Billie Holiday is 100% a character piece, and we are enveloped by Billie’s pain and power. Day is riveting in showing the frailty and strength of a black woman in the early, 20th century South. Daniels does well to intersperse simple scenes of how racism infects Billie’s days constantly like, having a black elevator operator push her away and telling her to use the service one. Although his heart breaks at standing with “the rules,” lynching is a constant, grey cloud over all black peoples’ heads. Black lives are so quickly taken for simply existing, and the threat of racist, white men invading their spaces and their ability to express themselves within them gives the film a realistic heaviness that horrifyingly feels surreal like, knowing demons exist and then seeing one in your room.

For Billie, and the audience, white supremacy and its co-conspirator, the FBI, become a terrifying villain, and Suzan Lori-Parks screenplay assures that every inch of Billie’s life is dominated by how whiteness views blackness. You see Garrett Hedlund’s Harry Anslinger looming in the back of Billie’s shows; salivating at the idea of arresting her for singing “Strange Fruit.” This glorious, sonic piece of Black American History is at the epicenter of the film because Billie Holiday was arrested and jailed for singing it. While the FBI claimed her arrest as part of its “War on Drugs,” race is apart of their every move, and their obsession with Billie’s addiction is the very sword they use against her. Yet, it is Daniels’ covering of Billie’s addiction that also become a slight sword against the audience.

During The United States vs Billie Holiday, there were some instances when I felt like I was watching the Empire version of a 1940s historical drama. From the beginning, its dark underbelly of brewing chaos reminded me of the show, which makes sense. Lee Daniels’ has a certain, melodramatic style when he approaches the music business, as seen by his creations Empire and Star. Yet, it is that very weightiness of constant issues and surrounding enemies that, at times, makes the film forget Billie was a funny, sparkling human being. Day’s performance shines because, even amongst countless scenes of Billie crying and shooting up, you feel her star. There was so much light to her, but darkness really went out of its way to crush it.

It is not an easy to create a brisk film about a person suffering a series of cruel prejudices and calamities. Billie Holiday’s life was dark, but she was light, and Day’s performance displays that. Yet, because the film can be so gloomy or focused solely on her pain, at times, The United States vs Billie Holiday can lack fluidity and breathe. It can smother you with Billie’s pain, but her spirit was magnetic and will leave you longing to see her more joyous, exuberant side, despite so much suffering. Still, similar to Judy, I relished seeing an old star in a new light with new stories.