In a scene from The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Billie (Andra Day) is about to sing “Strange Fruit” in concert, which Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), the first commissioner of the US Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, had forbidden her to do. Behind the audience is a row of uniformed policemen. Billie goes straight for the first verse (even though “Strange Fruit” actually features a long instrumental intro).

The cops start moving toward the stage, from which Billie is promptly spirited away by her own camp. This happens after one of Anslinger’s underlings has made it a point that "we can't arrest a negro for singing a song." One can only wonder, then, what those policemen planned to do once they had Billie within reach (I can think of a couple of things, but nothing feasible in front of witnesses).

But I digress. “Strange Fruit,” a song protesting the lynching of African Americans, was popularized by Holiday, but originally written by American composer and poet Abel Meeropol – a teensy-weensy detail that the movie conveniently leaves out, perhaps because giving a white man born to Russian Jewish immigrants credit would not jibe with the film’s message.

But, what is its message? That Billie Holiday was a social activist because she sang exactly one (1) song that she didn't even write? That she was an icon of equality, even though she treated her dogs better than the members of her band? That she is a role model for the African-American community, despite her liberal use of the N word? That her drug abuse was okay because men abused her all her life? That she spent a lot of time behind bars, but always as a victim of circumstance? Or that she was talented but not particularly bright? In fact, Billie is so dumb in this film that she continues to use drugs in front of the federal agent, named Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), who has already arrested her twice, and whom she not only treats as a member of her entourage, but also has an affair with.

I don’t doubt that the makers of TUSvs.BH had good intentions, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The film begins and ends with brief mentions of the state of the legislature on lynching, but in between it has as little to say about it as Billie herself. It’s odd that they couldn’t find an opportunity to express some sort of opinion on the subject in a 130-minute film, but then too much valuable time is wasted on plot points that range from the unnecessary to the inexplicable.

For example, the romance between Billie and Jimmy is not only a complete fabrication, but is also the cause of a sequence in which Jimmy, who gleefully partakes in Billie’s substance use, has a drug-induced vision of her childhood. Why would he have such an experience, and why would anyone care about it? This is the kind of thing that makes me think drugs were as readily available to the filmmakers as to the characters.