The United States vs. Billie Holiday Movie Review

Jazz singer Billie Holiday came to the fore of America’s conscience during a continuing low period of race relations in that country, the 1930s. The song that gave her such notoriety was Strange Fruit, a very powerful take on the lynching of black people. Its words and Holiday’s powerful delivery of it became a rallying cry and the FBI set out to diminish the unrest it caused.   //   Set more in the backstage world than on-stage, it shows Holliday in various states ...