Lee Daniels‘ The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu, 2.26.21) seems to be a standard “evil white racist government fucktards make life miserable for a gifted, velvet-voice blues singer who should have been left alone” movie.
The source novel, Johann Hari‘s “Chasing the Scream” (2016), isn’t about Holiday as much as the war on drugs that began in the late ’40s, so obviously Daniels’ isn’t remaking Lady Sings The Blues (’72). Which I wouldn’t have minded.
I suspect that Daniels’ film is going to be celebrated mostly for Andra Day‘s lead performance. Two sources say the early word on the film itself is not auspicious.
