An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Lee Daniels, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, to be honest, I wasn’t really familiar with Billie Holiday’s life and career so it was already pretty neat to get more acquainted with this great artist. On top of that, even though I didn’t know much about Billie Holiday, I was still impressed by Andra Day who not only had a great voice but also delivered a strong performance. As a result, she was even nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, a nomination she definitely deserved. Unfortunately, even though it was an intriguing story, I’m afraid the rest of the movie was not really good. Indeed, even though the title might make you think that this movie was about the persecution of Billie Holiday by the FBI, it was also about her drug addiction, her toxic relationships with most men and how she apparently fell in love with a FBI agent tailing her. Eventually, even though there was nothing really wrong with any of these ideas (her love story with this FBI agent was still rather far-fetched though), the biggest issue was that Lee Daniels struggled to deliver something really cohesive. Garrett Hedlund was also rather weak and unconvincing but he wasn’t helped by the fact that it seemed rather dubious that Harry J. Anslinger, a FBI major figure, would get personally so involved. I mean, it didn’t seem unlikely that the FBI would persecute her but it was more likely that Anslinger would keep an eye on her from his office instead of showing up himself on a regular basis to check/harass Holiday. Eventually, sending some goons like Jimmy Fletcher would have been more than enough. Anyway, to conclude, even though it could have been much better, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Billie Holiday.