United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)

Despite wildly conflicting reviews, we liked this story of the legal and other troubles of the acclaimed jazz singer (1915-1959) in the 1940s. No one has any complaints about Andra Day's performance, acting and singing in the title role. In fact, Day won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama last Sunday, and wrote the song Tigress and Tweed, which was nominated there and elsewhere for Best Original Song.

Trevante Rhodes and Garrett Hedlund play FBI agents Jimmy Fletcher and Harry Anslinger; Leslie Jordan is interviewer Reginald; Miss Lawrence and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are Holiday's posse, Miss Freddy and Roslyn; Tyler James Williams plays Holiday's frequent collaborator, tenor sax man Lester Young AKA Prez; and Natasha Lyonne gets nice billing for just a few scenes as Tallulah Bankhead (I did appreciate her accent).

Director Lee Daniels works from a script by Suzan-Lori Parks, adapted from Johann Hari's 2015 book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs (The Opposite of Addiction is Connection). I really do not understand the vitriol this movie has inspired. But maybe I just loved being immersed in Holiday's music. In the 1970s I wanted to be a jazz singer (it's HARD!) and studied a little jazz history. Hearing Day's interpretations of the oeuvre was good fun.

The all-vocals soundtrack can be streamed by subscription on Apple Music and free on Spotify. Kris Bowers wrote the other music, but I can't find it online.

Paolo Nieddu's costume design, including reproductions of some gowns that Holiday wore in real life, had me oohing and ahing, but his work was ignored by the Costume Designers Guild Awards. I guess it was tough going up against Emma, Ma Rainey, and Mank. Here's my list of nominees for that and select other awards.

Rhodes was last blogged for Moonlight as the adult Chiron, Hedlund for Mudbound, Jordan for The Help, Williams for Dear White People (the movie), Lyonne for A Futile and Stupid Gesture, Daniels for The Butler, and Bowers for Green Book, after which he composed for the serieses Dear White People, Mrs. America, and Bridgerton, to name a few. After I wrote about Randolph in Dolemite Is My Name, we enjoyed her in five episodes of On Becoming a God in Central Florida and ten of High Fidelity.

Day, who is a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter, performed on screen as a singer in Marshall, and chose "Day" as her stage name because of Lady Day, Holiday's nickname. Parks wrote the screenplay of Spike Lee's Girl 6 (1996). Lawrence, who identifies as male, is a hair stylist who has been on several TV shows as himself. Nieddu has worked on Saturday Night Live, among others.

Just to give you an idea of the disconnect in reviews, when I first started this rough draft, Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences were averaging 56 and 77%. Today they are 53 and 87. We watched it on Hulu on March 2.