‘Highest 2 Lowest’ review: Spike Lee reteams with Denzel Washington for ambitious crime thriller

Dir: Spike Lee. US. 2025. 133mins

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the primary time in almost 20 years for Highest 2 Lowest, an formidable, thought-provoking crime thriller. This reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 image Excessive And Low sees Washington play an ageing music mogul who should determine whether or not to threat his fortune to pay a ransom to the abductors who kidnapped the son of his childhood buddy. Lee’s skill to seize New York’s messy, electrical rhythms stays unsurpassed, and the movie’s examination of Black artistry and racial inequality is passionately rendered, though the movie’s general unfocused nature holds it again.

Its barrage of themes and impulses by no means discover concord

Premiering in a Cannes Out Of Competitors slot, the movie opens within the US on August 22 earlier than streaming globally on Apple TV+. The fifth pairing of Lee and Washington, who started their onscreen partnership with 1990’s Mo’ Higher Blues, will likely be a substantial draw, and the script’s thriller components make this arguably the director’s most industrial proposition since their 2006 collaboration, Inside Man.

Washington performs David King, a legendary record-label honcho married to lovely philanthropist Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and near their teen son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). Not too long ago, David has rejected promoting his long-running firm to a purchaser he’s satisfied will de-emphasise Black artists, reversing a coverage he considers paramount. However earlier than he can threat leveraging his wealth to regain controlling curiosity of the board, he will get a name from a mysterious kidnapper (A$AP Rocky), who declares that he’s taken Trey hostage and calls for a hefty $17.5 million for his return.

Those that have seen Excessive And Low, which was based mostly on the 1959 Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom, will know what occurs subsequent: David and the police shortly realise that it’s not Trey who has been kidnapped however, fairly, the teenager son of David’s shut buddy and private driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright). David faces an ethical dilemma as soon as the kidnapper insists that he nonetheless pay the ransom to free Kyle (Wright’s personal son Elijah).  Ought to David take into consideration his buddy? Or guarantee his family’s monetary future?

Kurosawa’s 1963 movie expertly balanced home drama with a thriller plot however, whereas Lee doesn’t skimp on the suspense, he appears extra invested in a research of this music-biz titan who will confront his personal shortcomings throughout these hostage negotiations. Washington is swaggering as David, who is aware of that he hasn’t produced a success album in years however nonetheless believes in his skill to identify expertise. Highest 2 Lowest’s attain exceeds its grasp in its grandiose conception of this flawed, once-mighty mogul.

Early on, the movie hints at how David has misplaced his approach – particularly, he’s develop into so fixated on the enterprise that the music itself now not invigorates him. In a way, this kidnapper (performed with petulant rage by Rocky) represents how David’s life might have ended up if he hadn’t been profitable. However as a result of David by no means hardly ever emerges as a tragic, sophisticated determine, the poignancy of the 2 males’s unlikely non secular connection fails to materialise.

That may-be connection strikes straight at Lee’s bigger exploration of the challenges going through Black entrepreneurs and creatives held again by America’s racist energy constructions. Lee additional illustrates these inequalities via David’s relationship with Paul, who served a jail sentence and has relied on his buddy ever since to maintain him financially afloat. On its floor, Highest 2 Lowest is a couple of kidnapping, however Lee digs deeper to query the societal inequities that drive Black Individuals into determined conditions — generally involving criminality — with a purpose to survive.

Past the shaky character dynamics, the plotting usually feels disjointed, regardless of a terrific motion sequence that pays homage to a equally riveting set piece in Kurosawa’s movie. However such moments are squandered in an overstuffed story that unconvincingly additionally desires to deal with the materialism within the hip-hop world and the scourge of social media. Finally, the image’s energetic swirl comes throughout as barely hole, its barrage of themes and impulses by no means discovering concord.