Jakob Eiseman, Editor

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” — Hulu

A new biopic from director Lee Daniels (“Precious,” “The Butler,”) is coming to Hulu on Friday, Feb. 26 in the form of “United States Vs. Billie Holiday.” The film will follow the famous American jazz singer and Philadelphia born Billie Holiday, played by Andra Day (“Marshall,” “Ben-Hur,”) in a part of her career where she was continually pursued by the United States government for refusing to stop sing her song “Strange Fruit,” which is about the mistreatment of Black men in the south. Rising to fame in the 1930s, Holiday was targeted by racist groups and Jim Crow activists for her music and positions on integration and politics. The government conducted a sting operation, led by Agent Jimmy Fletcher, played by Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight,” “Bird Box,”) who was meant to bust Holiday on drug charges. Although Holiday suffered an untimely death in 1959, her music would go on to inspire many key figures of the civil rights movement, and the director thought that the message of this biopic would mean more in today’s social climate than any other. 

“Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine” — Showtime 

The oft belittled mumble rapper Daniel Hernandez, also known as Tekashi 6ix9ine, is getting a biographical docuseries on Showtime. The miniseries, which debuted on the service on Sunday, Feb. 21, will follow how a heinous person who has done so much wrong and is so hated by the media was allowed to succeed in American pop culture. Hernandez not only plead guilty to the use of a child in a sexual performance after posting a video that showed the alleged assault of a 13-year old girl, but also plead guilty to nine felony charges of varying weight, was caught beating his mother and girlfriend and gave out the personal details of his fellow gang members in a court of law and was sentenced to several years in prison. “Supervillain,” which is narrated by Giancarlo Esposito (“Breaking Bad,” “The Usual Suspects,”) and features Hernandez himself in interviews has a twofold purpose, according to director Karam Gill: to show the world what is wrong with the rap industry’s glorification of gang culture, and to create a product that will gain more fame and popularity than Hernandez himself.

P5S: Persona 5 Strikers — PS4, PS5, Switch

Editor’s Note: The Collegian is not comparing this next piece of media to the serious and socially conscious pieces above. Although the film and television portions of this column carry very serious messages, the Collegian also finds it important to discuss positivity and exciting trends in the entertainment industry.

Persona 5 Strikers, which was released in Japan in February 2020, finally released in the West on Tuesday, Feb. 23 after a year of waiting for its localization. The game is a direct sequel to 2017’s Persona 5, which is currently rated as one of the best role-playing games of the 2010s. Persona 5 Strikers is not a turn based role-playing game like those that came before it, but a real-time action game developed by the team that created Dynasty Warriors and Hyrule Warriors, which was featured in the Collegian in November 2020. Persona 5 Strikers retains its talented English voice cast from the previous entries with Xander Mobus playing the unnamed lead character, Max Mittleman playing Ryuji Sakamoto, Erika Harlacher playing Ann Takamaki and Matt Mercer playing Yusuke Kitagawga. The game features the “Persona” series’ unique style with flashy, comic-book-like visuals, imagery alluding to French author Maurice Leblanc and fast moving, action-packed animated scenes.

eisemanj1@lasalle.edu