Well, the Academy recognised Andra Day among the best performances of the past year. Some critics I came across even had her as the frontrunner ahead of Frances McDormand in Nomadland, who would eventually win. She’s the only piece from the nomination pool that I’m missing, and I can’t have that.
This biopic, directed by Lee Daniels, follows the life of Miss Billie Holiday (Andra Day), a jazz singer from the late 1940s who irks the US government by refusing to stop singing a song about ‘strange fruit’; a song that highlights the injustices and lynching taking place in the South against African Americans. Holiday has to navigate the fallout, that puts restrictions on her professionally, as well as keeping an eye on the opportunistic self-interested men in her life, out to get a piece. All the while, Holiday juggles a growing drug problem that proves to be the ‘in’ for the government, attacking her through their narcotics department led by Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund).
With all the gratuitous sex and drugs, suffocating drama and a truly intoxicating lead, this story just seemed to be screaming for a home in an HBO series or something similar. At times, The United States vs. Billie Holiday feels like thumbing through an autobiography – I was skimming to adjoining events or perhaps some of the pages had fallen out. I thought the first ten minutes of this movie were truly remarkable, setting us up for an epic tale, but the movie takes a sharp turn, and its first of a few admittedly, that made me stumble and take a little while to re-find my footing. The movie is called The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and whilst that certainly seems like an apt and catchy way to sum up her life, I eventually found it best to think of what I was seeing as just a biopic of Holiday’s life, with the government’s harassment just a challenge along the way. As a movie, it’s doing a lot at once. I don’t think it’s as crisp as something like Judy, that picks a certain moment of the star’s life, to frame her life’s events and run with it – The United States vs. Billie Holiday wants to show it all, often with varying styles of filmmaking.
Day’s acting appears effortless, making Holiday extremely charismatic. I wouldn’t know Billie Holiday if I fell over her on the street, but Day seems so in tune with something, that I completely believed that she was an alluring star – hey, after this performance, she very well may be, in her own right! I’ve just posted a review where I talk about two lead actors being good, but where I didn’t necessarily believe them, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday goes to highlight my point, providing an example of the value of inferable authenticity, that invites you and couples you to the movie’s premise, like a train’s carriage. Some performers are naturally tuned-in for a roll though, (like Bria Vinaite in The Florida Project) so I was extremely keen to go home and check out who Andra Day really is in interviews, to see the person behind the performance; she does transform, most admiringly for the emotional headspace she achieves as Holiday, as a smooth real-world icon hardened by constantly watching her back. When it comes to the ‘Awards, I wonder if Day and Viola Davis undercut each other, both playing headstrong black singers in the movies, wading their way through a white man’s world. The Academy, and myself, are usually a sucker for an actor singing as someone who really lived too, and perhaps they were sensing a pattern, opting for McDormand instead. If I cared to weigh in on a winner, I would have had Day ahead of McDormand, but still behind Davis for me. Notedly, Trevante Rhodes, as a figure who starts out as one of Holiday’s biggest fans, is also really very good. I’ve seen him in a couple of forgettable things since Moonlight, but it seems he’s dug himself out another project where he can be just as sweet and gentle.
Despite all the stylistic inconsistencies, I really liked this movie. I was drawn to the main character, and a lot of what the movie does individually works really well. If only half this stuff is true (and I was quick to get home and research what I could because you can never be too careful), then Holiday led a life. I saw a quote somewhere that said that Holiday can be recognised as the ‘great grandmother of civil rights’ and I can completely see why. This would have made for a great series; there’s so many characters and lurid activity that could have been better dramatically fleshed out, given more time. But it’s not a series, it’s a movie, and judging it as such, I’m still glad I saw it.
4.0
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