Day’s performance is the best thing in ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’

Billie Holiday had enormous talent. The lady could flat out sing. Though I’m not even close to a fan of jazz, you’ll get no argument from me about Holiday’s vocal skills. The same goes for Andra Day who stars as Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

A Golden Globe resting on her mantle for last year’s best actress in the musical or comedy category says it all. You can add acting to her impressive vocal performance.

Holiday — says history and this movie — was targeted by the U.S. government in the 1950s because of her refusal to stop singing Strange Fruit. The song is about a lynching. Considering the song to be a rallying cry for the budding civil rights movement, and using Holiday’s heroin addiction as a reason, the FBI went after her with a vengeance.

A black agent climbing the ranks named Jimmy Fletcher is sent to spy on and develop a relationship with Holiday in order to bring her down. They develop a friendship and then a relationship. The relationship may or may not be fiction. Writer Johann Hari wrote about Holiday in one segment of his book “Chasing the Scream.” Its focus is addiction.

The movie is written by Susan-Lori Parks (Spike Lee’s “Girl 6”) and is directed by Lee Daniels who directed the also difficult to watch, “Precious” in 2009. Like “Precious,” this one is hard to watch. However, it’s for a different reason.

The film is just an all over the place pity party.

Holiday — admittedly — had a rough childhood. Her childhood was spent in a brothel. Holiday’s mother was a prostitute and the girl was molested and abused. Living in segregated America wasn’t easy either.

Then there’s the song. Holiday sang it and refused to stop though she didn’t start singing it because she saw someone lynched. Daniels puts a scene in the film where she and Fletcher see one. It had potential to be the most powerful scene in the film.

Seeing the man hanging and listening to his children wailing is chilling. You’ll see it and anger will flow through you like it did me. How could anyone do something like that to another human being.

And then Daniels makes it part of a montage of Holiday’s pain. It destroys the scene and throws the impact away.

It’s a big part of what’s wrong with “The United States vs. Billy Holiday.” A lot of personal, deva-like drama and little else. See this one for Day’s performance. Not much else works.

▪ Rated R for violence, language, sexual content, nudity and strong drug content. You can see the film on Hulu.

▪ Rating: 2 out of 5

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Day’s performance is the best thing in ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’."