It’s the audience that loses in Lee Daniels’ bloated The United States Vs. Billie Holiday
Film Reviews The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Harry Jacob Anslinger, who started as a railroad bull, spent more than 30 years as the commissioner of the Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau Of Narcotics, running the first war on drugs, which was largely a war against jazz, Black people, and the Mexican border. Much of the lurid sensationalism attributed to him (but mostly written by others) has passed into stoner legend. But the historical record tells us that these scare tactics—stories of white teenagers driven to madness and murder by Cab Calloway—had little influence on public opinion, and that Anslinger’s own motives and statements were contradictory. For the most part, he was after budgets and bureaucratic power.
Such a distinction (which tells us something about the subtexts of racism) doesn’t interest Lee Daniels. Barely 15 minutes into The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, a G-man declares, of Holiday’s immortal “Strange Fruit,” “People are calling this song a starting gun for this so-called civil rights movement!” This is 1947, which means that the line is not just a clunker but an anachronism. In Daniels’ take on the tragic destruction of Holiday (Andra Day) and her simultaneous struggles with the feds, heroin addiction, and her messy personal life, the forces of oppression are not directed at their own time: They are trying to keep our more enlightened values down.
Daniels obviously isn’t a realist. Since his breakthrough, Precious, he has developed a reputation as a director who throws in everything but the kitchen sink. In fact, one can’t help but think that what The United States Vs. Billie Holiday really needs is more melodrama. The material is ambitious and irresistible: Holiday’s arrest, conviction, and incarceration for drug possession, which came at the height of her popularity; her self-destructive streak; the furor over “Strange Fruit”; her romance with Tallulah Bankhead (Natasha Lyonne) and peculiar relationship with Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), the Federal Bureau Of Narcotics agent who was initially sent to infiltrate her inner circle.
But the script, adapted by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks from “The Hunting Of Billie Holiday,” an article by the journalist Johann Hari that was later included in Hari’s book Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days Of The War On Drugs, is more timeline than drama. Day, who’s very good, moves through it with comfort and charisma. Her Billie Holiday is as much a star in the green room as she is onstage, faced with applause or the harsh bathroom-mirror reflection of abuse and addiction. But many of the other characters might as well be reading off of cue cards. (The usually reliable Garrett Hedlund, miscast as the Holiday-hating Anslinger, is one of the more hopeless examples.)
One might make the case, as Daniels is straining to, that this is all about emotion. Occasionally, he borrows from the top narcotic stylists. There are imitations of editor Thelma Schoonmaker’s rapid dissolves, and scenes that look like they might have been mood-boarded to stills from Wong Kar-wai movies. When things get loose and improv-y, Holiday and her backstage confidantes seem like they stepped in straight from the modern world, surrounded by the repressed and the repressive, who move stiffly in their suits, with frozen facial expressions.
However, this central thesis isn’t enough to sustain 130 minutes’ worth of movie. Daniels soldiers on, dragging the film from one montage of sex, drugs, and vocal jazz standards to the next, pausing for sit-downs in tyrannically wallpapered rooms, where the less interesting supporting characters are called upon to explain what makes Holiday so important. Is the world cruelly closing in around the great chanteuse? Sure. But the prettified claustrophobia grows repetitive and finally static.
20 Comments
“Daniels obviously isn’t a realist.“He’s also not a good director. But he keeps working because… well I think we all know why.
Im getting flashbacks to The Butler. Lee Daniels always means well and the stories are based on fascinating historical events. But everytime he just fumbles it. Real shame.
Random thoughts:* This seems like one of those movies written specifically to give one person an Oscar (see: Judy)* Natasha Lyonne as Tallulah Bankhead sounds awesome, and I wish it was in a better movie.* Of fucking course this movie is called “The United States vs. Billie Holliday.”
At least the title doesn’t start with “America” in order have an earlier alphabetical order.
This winter…BANK…on HOLLIDAY!
I disagree that this was only to get Day an Oscar in the way that Judy was or that one that Julianne Moore did where she has Alzheimer’s (or actually a few of hers). Day looked to me like a genius inspired choice, she’s one of the only people I trust to sing like Billie…I’m not even sure this means she is going to do more films…it was probably originally launched to have somebody make an Oscar run, though.
Suzan-Lori Parks.
I’m really disappointed that this is how it turned out, I was really really looking forward to it, and Andra Day is an incredible singer.
The moment I saw in this review that this film was by the Precious guy any interest I had in it died. It does make financial hollywood sense to give him such a great project, but holy hell, I couldn’t imagine an easier way of degrading it into this his signature showcase of boring, simple-minded, oppressive, borderline-nihilistic yelling and ugly-crying. Billie Holiday deserves way better. What a penis that man is.
agreed. this dude ruins everything.
When Lee Daniels was smoking crack, he at least had an excuse for being as monumentally stupid as he is.
I remember thinking of how much Andra Day reminded me of Billie Holiday the first time I saw her. Casting her in this was a no-brainer. I just wish the script was better.
She’s phenomenal, the movie, not so much.
It’s telling that she took the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama rather than Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. The only other nomination the film got was Best Original Song. My guess is the film wouldn’t have gotten any recognition if Day hadn’t been in it.I think Day has natural talent in the same way Jennifer Hudson does. Beyond the fact that they both have phenomenal pipes, they are both natural actors who seem to intuitively know what takes most actors years to learn. I think this is just the start of Day’s movie career. Let’s hope she gets better writing next time.
I agree. Without Day in it, it becomes one of those unknown movies you stumble across while surfing Amazon Prime on a random Sunday afternoon.
‘Barely 15 minutes into The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, a G-man declares, of Holiday’s immortal “Strange Fruit,” “People are calling this song a starting gun for this so-called civil rights movement!”’When I saw a preview for this a character said something like ‘I can’t believe a song could be so dangerous!’ and I laughed for like 2 minutes straight.
I’m genuinely shocked that this isn’t dialogue from deleted scenes of Walk Hard.
I knew this was going to be problematic when I read an interview with Lee Daniels and it became quite clear that he barely knew a damn thing about Billie Holiday until he decided to make the movie. That, and the fact that he’s repeatedly shown a proclivity toward blunt-instrument dialogue is enough for me. I’ll gladly pass.
Sad. I liked the trailer and hoped against hope that Lee Daniels would come through. Alas.
Go for the Andra Day performance. Worth seeing.