Directed by Lee Daniels; screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks; based on the book by Johann Hari
Sixty-two years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died in Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, New York City due to complications of chronic substance abuse, bringing an end to her career as one of the premier jazz vocalists of the mid-20th century. She is the subject of Lee Daniels’
The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a seriously misguided work.
Andra Day in
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Holiday overcame an abusive childhood she grew up with her prostitute mother in Baltimore and Harlem brothels and a limited vocal range, to become a unique stylist who interpreted the popular songs of her era like a laid-back instrumentalist, delivering their lyrics with an unsettling emotional wallop.
Andra Day embodied the hyper-sexualized performer in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” and earned a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for her effort in the Hulu film.
“The United States vs Billie Holiday” (MA)
ELEANORA Fagan, aka Billie Holiday, born on April 7, 1915, shares my birth date (but not years!). She died in 1959. It was not a happy life.
Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, “Strange Fruit” protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.
Director Lee Daniels delivers a 130-minute (including closing credits) abridgment of the last 12 years of the blues singer who defied FBI chief J Edgar Hoover by singing it.
Written by Suzan-Lori Parks, adapting Johann Hari’s book “Chasing the Scream”, the film has more bad guys than good ones. Chief among them was Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund). The film’s closing credits show TV footage of JFK giving him an award for a lifetime of service. It’s fair to say that he killed Holiday who died handcuffed by the ankle to the foot of her hospital bed.
J.P. Devine Movie Review: ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’
Great jazz singer’s life torturously lived, difficult to watch.
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Andra Day portrays Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Takashi Seida/Hulu photo
Director Lee Daniels (“The Butler” 2013) brings to the screen a brutal, painful two hours and 10 minutes of the life of the great jazz singer, Billie Holiday, in his film “United States vs. Billie Holiday.”
Following close behind the recent “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” George. C. Wolfe’s screen version of August Wilson’s play, rips back the curtain on the ugly past of many of the music world’s great black performers.
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