‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Review: Spike Lee Reunites with Denzel Washington and Scores a Smash Hit with His Kurosawa Reinterpretation [B+] Cannes
“It’s a reinterpretation – not a remake!” This is what Spike Lee said back in September 2024 about his latest joint Highest 2 Lowest, inspired by the classic Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, itself loosely based on the 1959 novel “King’s Ransom.” The last time Lee took on an American adaptation of a renowned piece of cinema was back in 2013 with Oldboy, widely regarded as Lee’s worst films of his filmography, and one the director has distanced himself from as the studio took final cut away from him, thus Lee took off his signature “A Spike Lee Joint” from all marketing of the film. It seemed to be a mistake from the acclaimed auteur, whose stellar career might’ve had misses before but nothing as disastrous as that remake because first and foremost, it just didn’t feel like it had the rhythm, the soul, the voice of a Spike Lee joint; films from a filmmaker with something to say. With Highest 2 Lowest, he’s got plenty to say as he provides a cool, assured version of the acclaimed crime thriller, alongside his greatest collaborator of his career; Denzel Washington.
When we find David King (Washington), he is enjoying a beautiful morning in New York City, as he is in the middle of trying to pull off the business deal of the century. Once a legend in the music world for having “the best ears in the business” for spotting talented artists, his company Stackin’ Hits Records has come on hard times and is looking to get bought out and David can be sent to an early semi-retirement. But he doesn’t want that, as he is still convinced that he can bring them out of the ashes, and usher them into a new era of Stackin’ Hits, he just has to keep things tight financially for now till the deal goes through. Within the first couple of scenes, Washington’s David is in full command of the screen, playfully sparring with his Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), ripping on his son for wearing a green headband to basketball camp (the character alongside the film’s director are massive fans of the New York Knicks), and arriving to the office in style, with the assistance of his driver/best friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright). All plans or visions of recapture the glory of his youthful days in the music business are put on hold when word comes in that kidnappers have taken both his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) and Paul’s son, David’s godson Kyle (Elijah Wright), and want fourteen and a half million in Swiss Francs. Much like the original story, Lee is setting the stage of his drama by building a tense situation with no room for error around King, but also injecting Lee’s kinetic energy throughout with an over the top, piano forward score from composer Howard Drossin.
Once the kidnappings have taken place, David, Pam, and Paul speak to the trio of police detectives assigned to the case (Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze), each giving their descriptions of the boys and the last time they’ve seen them before the abduction. When the detectives speak to David and Pam, it’s with a tone and respect not given to Paul, as Lee injects class and racial politics firmly in the treatment of each of these cases. Because David’s name comes with visibility (having Dom Lemon covering the breaking news of Trey’s absence), he is given more care and visibility by the police, with access to updates and part of the forming of a plan to get the boys back but also to make sure that any exchange of the money is given back to David so he can complete his deal to buy back the record company. Because Paul has a criminal history, and is not as prolific as David, the police start to question him harder, seeming to accuse him of being a part of this kidnapping without having to say it out loud. Multiple times throughout the film, these blurred lines are brought up, as Lee wants to make it clear that in his world, the benefit of the doubt is only given to the powerful, a fact that rings true as we see highly powerful people today get out of jail or crimes without a punishment but the everyday people of our country are held to a different set of standards. Even within a friendship like David and Paul, one that we see is close, almost like brothers, and yet there is a double standard found within how parts of the system treats them and the ones they love. Lee’s ability to see these social inconsistencies and put his finger right on the source of the issue has been a hallmark of his career, and continues to sadly ring true in his story as well.
Shortly after collecting the information on the boys, the police notify the parents that they were able to find Trey, but the kidnappers still have Kyle, believing him to be David’s son, and still wanting their cash in exchange for his life. The reveal of this information with Hedera’s Pam screaming it to David from another room speaks to another continued pattern found in Lee’s films, and that’s the underwritten, underutilized roles of the female characters within his joints. Hadera isn’t given much to do (and disappears from the narrative about halfway through) other than worry about her son, and stand behind Washington as David is left with the biggest moral question of his life; save his godson with the money used for the deal to get his legacy back or refuse to pay the ransom and let the chips fall where they fall. This decision is resolved rather quickly, and less effective of a dilemma here than found in Kurosawa’s version, as that film slowly builds up to that moment, leaving that question of whether it will be paid or not rather feeling rather taut within the story. For Lee, he is having to deal more in a modern world, far beyond the newspaper publicity of the original, now having to deal with the social media and version sites that can turn on you on a dime in the court of public opinion (though the film’s logic behind how fast the machine came move against you is played up a little silly to move the plot along, as well as the number of downloads an artist can have within a short amount of time), David easily factors in that saving his godson is more of a cost benefits for all factors than not paying the ransom, including his relationship with Paul. Washington, who within working with Lee before in Malcolm X and He Got Game played characters that has similar moral, spiritual, cultural, personal decisions to make, and the legendary actor brilliantly showcased again his understand of finding the emotional tug and pull of making such life altering decisions, but moving on quickly to accept the outcome and embracing it in the best way Washington has done his entire career; head down, in stride with confidence.
Once a decision is made, the movie kicks into another gear, reminiscent of the cat and mouse thriller Lee and Washington made the last time they worked together, Inside Man. David sets up a plan with the kidnapper, a young rapper named Yung Felony (ASAP Rocky) who idealized David and wanted to make records for Stackin’ Hits but never got the time of day after multiple times of sending in his music. In order to get the attention of his longtime hero, he’s staged this kidnapping as an act of revenge for his neglect, and makes David meet him on the subway, in an elaborate attempt to get the money that involves a Puerto Rican music festival with real life cameos involving Eddie Palmieri, Anthony Ramos, and Rosie Perez, as well as a train heading straight for Yankee Stadium, with rowdy fans yelling “Fuck Boston” right to the camera (which as a Red Sox fan, that did sting a little, but hey, that’s just Spike being Spike, as it is also poetic given his Knicks just beat the Celtics in the NBA playoffs last week). In this highly entertaining scene, it plays more like a sequence from Washington’s collaborations with the late director Tony Scott, as David is moving from train car to train car, dropping the bag in the middle of a car on the outside, only for the cops to go on a chase in the city with multiple guys on motorcycle. It might be some of the most entertaining set pieces Lee has ever put to scene, as he is not known for action scenes in his films, but this was downright fun, especially given how hilarious Winters’s Det. Higgins becomes increasingly frustrated as the scene plays out.
With the money in the wind, Kyle home recovering at the hospital, and the deal for Stackin’ Hits pretty much dead, one would think this would bring David down, have him internally collapse. No, that’s not how this is going to play out, as somewhere in-between all the madness, David found his groove again, and we know this as the music of the film changes from the score, which is elegant, prestigious, clean; the sound of privilege to when David, with the assistance of Paul, starts to hear the music that inspires him, as James Brown blasts multiple times in the finale of the film. Washington and Wright are excellent together, as two men that have a shared history of going to battle together, saddling up one more time to bring to justice the boy responsible for turning their world upside down over the last couple days Hilarious and heartfelt, the two character actors show why they are still some of the best actors of their generation, and need to work together more with Lee in the future because their chemistry is out of bounds.
Speaking of scene chemistry though, in a scene that will be discussed as one of the most memorable moments of the year, the first confrontation between David and Yung Felony is superb acting from Washington and A$AP Rocky. Filmed like an interrogation scene within a recording and sound booth, the two men state Lee’s hypothesis about power and the struggle to rise above one’s station in our current world. As Felony explains to David that this is what he had to do to get a meeting with him, you see the anger of a generation who have been told you have to get ahead in life by following a plan that is a lie; that if you are talented or smart enough, the world is your oyster. But what happens when rejection and neglect set in? It poisons the well, leading people to do desperate things, causing them to go beyond the point of no return and there is no reasoning with them as they just want to see the world burn down. David sees this young man’s potential, but also the fault of his own on in allowing someone like Felony to slip through the cracks and become completely jaded by the idea of working together to find commonality. Lee not only uses this moment to showcase the greatest living actor on the planet’s skills (Washington rapping throughout this sequences will send audiences to the moon given his extensive background as a Shakespearean performer), but further taps into the divide within our country, which has become generational, as every age demographic in the US envision the future vastly different than the one before us. It’s something that feels vital given our modern times, how each election or important moment in our country’s history separates us more and more, widening the gap from being able to listen to each other and come to a collective resolution.
Highest 2 Lowest allows Spike to look to the past in order to understand the world that is currently forming around him. He’s an old soul adapting, shape-shifting, recalibrating his unique brand of storytelling to convey messages of grave importance like most of his career. Though he does not come anywhere close to the masterpiece that is Kurosawa’s film (which is hard to do considering it’s one of the greatest movies of all time), but Lee is able to use this classic story to jump off on ideas that seem to usher him into a new wave of his career that could be nostalgic, contemplative, bold, and consistently fresh ideas; hopefully with Washington, for whom together have continued to be one of the greatest duos in cinema history. Much like Yung Felony’s song lyrics used throughout the film, Lee is looking “back to the front to the front to the back” with this project, looking for clues to find the answers needed to restore the peace we all want to live in. In doing that, he’s packaged it in his most entertaining film since Inside Man, and a worthy companion to Kurosawa’s career best feature.
Grade: B+
This review is from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where Highest 2 Lowest premiered Out of Competition. Apple Original Films and A24 will release the film in the U.S. on August 22.
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