ARTFUL TELLING OF JAZZ GREAT

HOLIDAY TRAPPED WITH BAD HABIT BY POLICE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Billie Holiday was one of the most important musicians during the Jazz Age that included such greats as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

But jazz being what jazz is, Holiday’s singing got her in trouble with the United States Government.

In The United States v. Billie Holiday (2021), director Lee Daniels shows how Holiday’s truth to herself and to her fans meant more to her than her own personal fortunes.

Andra Day performs a mirror perfect performance of Holiday. Trevante Rhodes and Garett Hedlund costar.

Day carriers the atmosphere created from the cabaret scenes to the back stage. Day is able to suspend disbelief by talking and acting how people would have expected Holiday to talk and act.

Holiday becomes persecuted by the United States Bureau of Investigations for the repeated performance of her song about the lynching of black people. 

Strange Fruit (1939) depicts the dangling dead bodies of lynched Black Americans as dried fruit hanging from trees.

The actors engage in thoughtful dialogue about relationships and racism in America, with Black people often being Holiday’s harshest critics.

Daniels relies on a linear narrative about Holiday the singer, intertwined with Holiday the victim of government persecution, and Holiday the drug addict, and Holiday the victim of racism in America.

The script focusses on a few issues around the government persecution rather than attempt to provide a retrospective on Holiday’s life.

Daniels scenes are well composed portraits, rarely wasting a second of camera time or an inch of screen space.

Daniels occasionally uses a montage of superimposed scenes to depict the passage of time rather than slowing the narrative down and redirecting the narrative with flashbacks to explain the backstory.

Day does perform several Holiday songs or pieces of songs, but the script is not overwhelmed by these scenes. Instead, the singing performances create the gritty atmosphere in which Holiday lived her life true to the music. And Day, through her acting, is able to make the audience feel the truth of those early days of jazz.

Day sings like Holiday, but her acting is what really compels the movie forward.

The dramatization, though, does lack a bit of pace and intrigue. Daniels creates a couple of subplots, but the outcomes are not all that surprising.

A score is used, but the background music is more of an attempt to create atmosphere and tone that Daniels was not able to create with the camera.

Overall though, Daniels artfully depicts this important story of Americana.

The United States v. Billie Holiday (2021) is currently streaming in Canada on Apple TV.