In her first starring role in a major movie, singer Andra Day makes a convincing case for an Oscar nod as tragic blues legend Billie Holiday in Lee Daniels’ operatic “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” bowing Friday on Hulu.
Also out this week: Tabloid sensation Armie Hammer shares screen time with Gary Oldman in a multi-pronged drug epic, and a Jewish-themed horror serves up a devilishly good PG-13 time.
Here’s a rundown.
“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”: Racism endorsed and executed by high-ranking government officials gets deservedly slapped upside its loathsome head once again. If the powerhouse “Judas and the Black Messiah” and the revelatory documentary “MLK/FBI” failed to convince you of the disgusting measures deployed by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and other white henchmen to snuff out Black voices, Lee Daniels’ melodramatic, absorbing and frustrating take on the showdown between Holiday and Harry J. Anslinger, who headed the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, certainly should. Nothing’s ever understated about Daniels’ films (see “Precious” and “The Butler”) but his exclamatory style, for the most part, works in this fiery retelling of Holiday’s run-ins with the feds over her heroin habit. As the film purports, it was really her performances of a landmark hit about a lynching, “Strange Fruit,” that the government wanted stopped. The period details are exquisite, Andra Day’s performance is transformative and the message is timeless. Too bad Daniels doesn’t take it down a notch every now and then. The R-rated “United States” will naturally be compared to 1972’s “Lady Sings the Blues” (also about Holiday) and long respected for Diana Ross’s soul-piercing performance. But the team of Daniels, Day, Garrett Hedlund (as the relentless Anslinger), Trevante Rhodes as Holiday’s lover/federal agent and Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks brings a fresh voice to a biopic that isn’t perfect but gripping nevertheless. Details: 3 stars; available Feb. 26 on Hulu.
“Crisis”: Filmmaker Nicholas Jarecki deploys a multi-narrative structure, a la Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” for his well-intended epic on the American opioid epidemic. It doesn’t work. The hot-button thriller comes alive whenever it focuses on a frustrated academic/prescription drug researcher (Gary Oldman) battling greedy big pharma and unscrupulous colleagues who are bent on steamrolling a far more addictive drug into the market. But two storylines are rote — that of a grieving mother/recovering addict (Evangeline Lilly) seeking blood justice and an undercover DEA agent (Armie Hammer, as bland as a mayo sandwich) rooting out pill dealers. If Jarecki had just focused on the pharm goons and ethically challenged university bigwigs (Greg Kinnear) this could have been a potent effort. Note: This is NOT for young viewers. Details: 2 stars; available Feb. 26 on multiple platforms.
“The Vigil”: No split pea soup spews forth, yet Keith Thomas’ demonic Jewish horror freak-out summons the spectre of “The Exorcist” and its catastrophic jump scares. Set from dusk till dawn in a creepy apartment in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Borough Park, Thomas’ feature tampers with Jewish mythology as a broke Yakov (Dave Davis) signs on to watch over the fresh corpse of a member of his Orthodox Jewish community. Hounded by his own demons, Yakov tangles with the restless dead body, an Alzheimer’s-afflicted wife (Lynn Cohen) and things that go bump in the night. The gloomy soundtrack, piercing sounds and claustrophobic setting will make you wince, cower, and shriek — all at once. It’s not too gory, but too freaky for young viewers. Details: 3 stars; available to stream Feb. 26 on multiple platforms.
“Sin”: Biopics often paint pretty pictures of their subjects. Not so Andrei Konchalovsky’s gritty plunge into the life of famed artist Michelangelo, whose mind starts crumbling over the House of Medici, a changing of the papal guard and impossible deadlines for the Sistine Chapel. Alberto Testone taps into Michelangelo’s delusional desperation as one of his grandiose artistic visions leads to bloody tragedy. Konchalovsky presents us with a Rome and Florence unlike the colorful travel brochures we’re accustomed to, with cameras paying stringent attention to the dirt and grit of the time period. Other details, such as Michelangelo’s sexuality, are sadly only hinted at. Still, there there are enough indelible images to make this worthwhile, including a “Fitzcarraldo”-like sequence to in which a hunk of granite is extracted and moved treacherously down a hill. Konchalovsky’s a talented filmmaker; his “Dear Comrades!” has been shortlisted in the international film category for the 2021 Oscars. Details: 3 stars; available as part of the Virtual Cinema series at the Roxie Theatre, www.roxie.com.
“Safer at Home”: The track record for COVID-19-themed movies hasn’t been so hot. The Michael Bay-produced “Songbird” was a tasteless disaster while Shudder’s “The Host” was merely satisfactory. After a promising start — a Zoom birthday party where a bit of drug taking and partying goes awry — “Safer at Home” stalls and grows ever more ludicrous and uninteresting. The cast is solid, but it’s the screenplay from Will Wernick and Lia Bozonelis that leads them astray with a story that’s both ridiculous and cliched. Details: 2 stars, available Feb. 26 on various platforms.
“Truth to Power”: This explosive, much-needed call to action against corrupt politics and global inaction couldn’t be more timely. Garin K. Hovannisian’s intimate, moving documentary shows how, System of a Down singer and frontman Serj Tankian’s music and activism fomented enormous change, getting nations to recognize the early 1900s Armenian Genocide. It’s a rousing portrait of a creative artist’s fearless, passionate dedication to his art and advocacy. It will leave you in tears yet filled with hope that we all have the power to invoke change. Details: 3 stars; available as part of the Virtual Cinema series at Rialto Cinemas.
“Silk Road”: There’s a terrific thriller lurking in this uneven dramatization on the the real-life titular darknet website internet designed by hotshot libertarian Ross Ulbricht (Nick Robinson). The “Love Simon” star is perfect in the lead, serving up the right mix of nerdy and cocky charisma while Jason Clarke is terrific as a burned out, disgruntled DEA agent toying with Ulbricht in a most unethical way. But writer/director Tiller Russell missteps on crucial elements, underwriting the role of Ulbricht’s girlfriend and fumbling about with awkward action sequences. Still, “Silk Road” manages to tell a compelling story thanks to the two leads. Details: 2½ stars; playing at select drive-ins (check schedules at www.westwinddi.com) and streaming on several platforms.
“Lapsis”: Noah Hutton’s sci-fi satire takes on greedy corporations that prey on gig workers and does it with smarts while never shirking its primary obligation — to entertain. Average guy Ray (Dean Imperial) lands a weird gig hooking up cables in the woods for a behemoth of a corporation that offers big pay days. Naturally, there’s a dark side to the business, and Hutton goes for the jugular without the bloodshed. It’s no wonder Hutton was nominated for best first screenplay at the Spirit Awards. Details: 3 stars; available to stream on several platforms, details here.
“Dead Pigs”: Cathy Yan rocketed to prominence when Warner Bros. and DC Comics tapped her to direct “Birds of Prey.” That 2020 R-rated superhero film failed to click with audiences and critics alike. But it does spotlight the energetic style of Yan, on display with such skill in “Dead Pigs” (2018) her award-winning feature debut, which is more entertaining. Taking a page from a real-life chapter in Shanghai — when diseased, dead pigs kept clogging up the river — Yan fashions a quirky, engaging and feisty tale that unites the plights of kooky characters coping with an ever-changing city, country and culture. It’s quite the ride. Details: 3 stars; available to stream on various platforms.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com
