Tonight at a glance
- Runtime
- 131 min
- Age rating
- R
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States
- Violence
- Strong
Why tonight?
- It goes hard on violence — not a wind-down.
The story
Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."
- war on drugs
- new orleans
- louisiana
- jazz singer or musician
- ban from profession
- biography
- surveillance
- heroin addiction
- 1940s
- 1950s
- fbi agent
The look
A few frames, chosen rather than collected.
The bill
Andra Day
Billie Holiday
Trevante Rhodes
Jimmy Fletcher
Garrett Hedlund
Harry Anslinger
Leslie Jordan
Reginald Lord Devine
- Miss Lawrence — Miss Freddy
- Adriane Lenox — Mrs. Fletcher
- Natasha Lyonne — Tallulah Bankhead
- Rob Morgan — Louis McKay
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph — Roslyn
- Evan Ross — Agent Williams
- Tyler James Williams — Lester 'Prez' Young
- Tone Bell — John Levy
- Blake DeLong — Agent Carter
- Dana Gourrier — Sadie
- Melvin Gregg — Joe Guy
- Directed
- Lee Daniels
- Written
- Suzan-Lori Parks
Production
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 · 318 ratings
- Studio
- Lee Daniels Entertainment, Roth-Kirschenbaum Films
If this stayed with you
Then these are the nearest things Cue holds — chosen for what they share with it, not for what happens to be popular.
