THE UNITED STATES VS BILLIE HOLIDAY (15)
THIS isn’t the first Billie Holiday biopic but it does boast the most dazzling lead performance.
This a genuine “star is born” moment for singer and first-time actor Andra Day. Not only does she nail that smoky voice but she lets us feel the pain and defiance that defined Billie’s relationships with a string of abusive men.
Day is in the running for a Golden Globe at tonight’s ceremony and deserves it for holding our attention throughout this sloppy 130-minute drama.
Director Lee Daniels, working off a book from ex-journalist and self-confessed plagiarist Johann Hari, focuses on how the FBI hounded Billie for her heroin addiction in revenge for singing Strange Fruit, that hauntingly poetic protest song about lynching. Seeing Billie hauled off stage by federal agents for singing about something that actually happened feels positively Orwellian.
You may find the prominent role given to Trevante Rhodes, who plays Jimmy Fletcher, rather surprising. In previous accounts, Fletcher was a minor figure, an undercover FBI agent who regretted inveigling his way into Holiday’s entourage in the 1940s.
But, according to Daniels and Hari, he was her gallant saviour, the man who sacrificed his career to teach her the meaning of true love. In a surreal scene, Holiday, who has just served a prison sentence for heroin possession, invites the man who betrayed her to take the same drug with her and her friends.
Movies can convince me that love conquers all, a man can fly and Gerard Butler can save the world. But I didn’t buy this for a second.
■ On Sky Cinema and NOW TV