Skip to main content Currently Reading 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' Review: Scattered but Scorching, and a Must-See for Andra Day's Performance Lee Daniels' biopic showcases Billie Holiday as a searing political artist, persecuted for singing "Strange Fruit." Owen Gleiberman, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail Director: Lee Daniels With: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Adriane Lenox, Rob Morgan, Natasha Lyonne, Da’vine Joy Randolph, Tone Bell, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams, Blake DeLong, Dana Gourrier, Melvin Gregg. The gifted and mercurial Lee Daniels, director of “Precious,” is one of the only filmmakers I can think of who would dare to drop a badass-diva moment of Billie Holiday violently slapping her spouse into the middle of an otherwise giddy celebrity-singer-on-tour montage. In Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Billie, played with glamorous, blowsy, dagger-eyed force by Andra Day, has had her share of ups and downs — on and off heroin (mostly on); a stint in prison; a despicably unwarranted and relentless crackdown on her life and career by the U.S. government; a succession of romantic partners who are smooth-talking scoundrels — or, in one case, too nice and upstanding for her.