FILM 2074 

Lee Daniels’s Billie Holiday biopic The United States vs. Billie Holiday was released on February 26th, 2021, and my immediate reaction to it was one of discomfort.

We can criticize depictions from old media, but they weren’t simply “good for their time”. They were fighting and struggling in a world we can’t imagine.

The sparks of a dangerous conspiracy ignite a mystery in this sequel based on the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

Perhaps the most amazing and groundbreaking quality about The Birdcage is how removed it is from both illness and insensitivity. Whereas films preceding it were often somber stories about the tribulations of being gay in a conservatively straight world, Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May expose the fallacies of conservatism as traditional values are thrown into a more open-minded space. They don’t care how far the community has fallen so much as how high they can rebuild themselves.

My Beautiful Laundrette is often referenced as a positive LGBTQIA+ film because our two main characters are in a homosexual relationship with no shame, fear of violence or criticism. The struggle is not their sexuality. It is the treatment of the Pakistani citizens in England.

How closely should film adaptations follow their source material? Let's take a deep dive into "Norma Rae", and find out.