The United States vs Billie Holiday

[peter]

While Andra Day's performance as the troubled singer Billie Holiday is undoubtedly fine, little can save this pretty dull biopic from slipping into the realms of also-rans with the passage of time. It's a shame because both the lady and the subject matter of the film deserved better; the backdrop of the singer's refusal to stop singing her uncomfortable hit-song Strange Fruit with its allusions to the commonplace activity of black lynch mobs in the Southern States, and the trouble it caused her, is an important story that needed to be told in an unforgettable way - but this film entirely fails to do that. Instead it concentrates on the singer's battle with drugs and alcohol, her necessity to always be tied up with the most destructive of partners, which I guess is fair enough - it is the singer's story after all - but in some way the actual horror of what was going on, both in terms of the practice of lynching and the means by which the state crushed her, is somehow lost amongst the pain of her downward spiral.

Ten out of ten to Andra Day - two out of ten to the rest.