Billie Holiday is a film about a legendary jazz singer, but it seems that Lee Daniels' picture does not live up to the hopes placed in this project, because apart from the acting and vocal performances of Andra Day, not much has been done.
Cigarette smoke rising, the sound of ice cubes bumping against a glass and finally - jazz. Lee Daniels takes us to an extraordinary time for American culture, when jazz in its various forms guaranteed a moment of artistic ecstasy. It turns out, however, that it is not enough to reach for an intriguing period and an extremely interesting character to create a successful film. It would also be appropriate to have an idea for the story, and the path chosen by Lee Daniels turned out to be completely wrong.
Billie Holiday by no means exhausts the extraordinary and colorful story of the title character, who was not only successful on the jazz scene, but was also very important to the black community. Her piece Strange Friut has become a symbol of the fight against racism, dealing with lynching on people with black skin. The artist was therefore inconvenient for the authorities, so the federal services tried to find something that would allow them to blackmail or even control Holiday's performances. That something turned out to be drugs, considered at the time to be the biggest problem plaguing society.
So Daniels proposes in his film a story focused around the peak moments of the swing queen's career, and this time is very interesting in many respects. The issues of artist censorship, racial inequality, and the escalating drug problem in the United States all seem to ask for an engaging production from the first to the last minute. The director's picture, however, surprises with its shallowness, pathos and ... boredom. The artist made a strange assumption that violence could replace the heroine's development, and therefore her transformation and decisions would be determined by the difficult relationships with the men around her. Thus, it is not even half possible to authentically show the pain and problems of Billie Holiday.
Therefore, it is difficult to clearly define Daniels' film, because it definitely has problems choosing a specific direction. He doesn't do well as a biography of an extremely interesting character, but also as a voice in the discussion of racial inequality. In his very conventional approach, the director decides to choose, above all, the difficult and brutal moments in Holiday's life, sometimes only breaking them with grotesque humorous scenes. He also does it with the help of musical sequences in which Andra Day - playing the main character - can show off her skills. And in fact, as soon as the music parts in a jazz atmosphere sound - it is good. When Lee Daniels wants to tell an engaging story, it completely fails.
It is a pity not only for Billie Holiday, but also for Andry Day, who did a great job in this role and fully deserved an Oscar nomination. It is not surprising that she presented herself excellently on stage with a microphone. The artist decisively increases the value of the film during dramatic scenes and requiring acting experience. He does it at an extremely high level and draws as much from the history constructed in this way.
Unfortunately, we have a confusion of conventions and a very bad emphasis here. A lot of time is spent, for example, on Billie's affair with a federal agent, the plot of which is very poorly conducted and has a negative impact on the narrative of the film. A second act has also been laid, where Billie Holiday finds itself in an even more difficult position. From that moment on, the production becomes boring and it's hard to talk about commitment. Fortunately, it is also decently acting in the background, because Garrett Hedlund and Trevante Rhodes are remembered for their roles, but again - this is not due to the script and director who approached his characters with archetypes and economical means.
Billie Holiday, unfortunately, is an average movie with a great performance by Andy Day. It is an uninvolved and poorly guided story with a total waste of the potential of the title character.