it's messy, defiant and important; It's not perfect, but "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" is a reminder that it doesn't matter how many times we've heard these stories, in how many ways. We have to keep telling them, and never forget
it's a mixed-at-best effort with a strong lead performance, but one that ultimately cannot honor the legendary song (or singer's life) it takes most of its emotional and spiritual cues from
in this sprawling, lacerating, but at times emotionally wayward biopic set during the last decade of Holiday's life, Day gives Billie a voice of pearly splendor that, over time, turns raspy and hard, and we see the same thing happening to Billie inside
Andra Day, a Grammy-nominated singer with no previous acting experience who delivers a debut performance so magnetically whole-bodied that her presence seems to rearrange the atoms of every room she walks into
Andra Day's rendition is heartfelt; But the direction and storytelling are laborious, without the panache and incorrectness of earlier Lee Daniels movies such as "Precious" (2008) and "The Paperboy" (2012)
Andra Day mesmerizes even when Lee Daniels' unwieldy bio-drama careens all over the map with stylistic inconsistency and narrative dysfunction, settling for episodic electricity in the absence of a robust connective thread
Andra Day is electric; [but] the film is unbalanced, generally failing to center on the song driving the story while romanticizing an affair between Holiday and a FBN agent
an astonishing, red-raw performance from the singer and novice actress Andra Day is the main draw in this excoriating biopic about the FBI's relentless pursuit of the jazz singer Billie Holiday
"The United States vs. Billie Holiday" is a misfire, and what a shame, because Andra Day had it in her to be great in this. The movie just didn't let her bring it out