Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
‘Highest 2 Lowest’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters August 15 is ‘Highest 2 Lowest,’ directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, A$AP Rocky, Ice Spice, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, Aubrey Joseph, Michael Potts, and Wendell Pierce.
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Initial Thoughts
(L to R) Oscar®-winning actor Denzel Washington presents the Oscar® to Honorary Award recipient Spike Lee at the 2015 Governors Awards in The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, CA, on Saturday, November 14, 2015. Credit/Provider: William Barnes / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.
Remaking what is regarded as one of Akira Kurosawa’s best, bleakest, and most cynical films is a big swing, and Spike Lee boldly puts his own imprint on Kurosawa’s 1963 gem ‘High and Low.’ He updates it to the modern era and New York City, makes some changes to the story while keeping the central premise and dilemma more or less intact, and includes his usual grab-bag of distinctive trademarks – both for better and worse.
In the end, the biggest attraction is watching Lee once again collaborate with Denzel Washington for the fifth time and first since 2006’s ‘Inside Man.’ The latter delivers for his director in towering fashion, making this version of the story perhaps more of an epic character study than police drama. It remains compelling material, thanks in particular to Washington and Jeffrey Wright, even if Lee meanders off course with distracting asides, some uninspired staging, and one of the most overbearing and ill-fitting scores of the year.
Story and Direction
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
The plot of ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ follows that of ‘High and Low’ in the broad strokes. Washington plays legendary music mogul David King, who’s on the verge of selling his famous independent label, Stackin’ Hits Records, to a larger corporate concern (the protagonist owns a shoe company in the original). King’s peak years, when he made the cover of magazines regularly, are behind him, but he’s still worried that the sale will stamp out the label’s identity and “drain Black culture.” So he instead lays down his own personal assets – his savings, his stocks, and his properties, including his family’s luxury high-rise apartment in a riverfront Dumbo skyscraper – to buy Stackin’ Hits on his own, with the reluctant approval of his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and business partner Patrick (Michael Potts).
The deal is about to go through when calamity strikes. David gets a call from a kidnapper (A$AP Rocky) who says he’s seized David and Pam’s teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) and wants $17.5 million in Swiss francs in exchange for his life. David is ready to pivot from his deal and lay out all his money for his son’s safe return. But then it becomes apparent that Trey is okay and the kidnapper has mistakenly taken a boy named Kyle (Elijah Wright) – the son of David’s lifelong friend and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright).
Therein lies the moral dilemma at the heart of both film versions of this tale, as well as ‘King’s Ransom,’ the Ed McBain novel on which both are based. When it’s David’s son’s life on the line, he’s ready to pay up at a moment’s notice. But when it’s someone else’s child – even that of one of his closest friends – all of a sudden the loss of all that money that David was going to use to buy back Stackin’ Hits looms much larger in his mind. What makes ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ different from ‘High and Low’ is that this dilemma is resolved rather quickly – after a bit of soul-searching by David and some silent suffering from Paul, who seems to always be in the corner of David’s eye – and the moral aftermath is left more or less behind as ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ turns into a story of a once-powerful, gifted man who learns how to get his mojo back.
A$AP Rocky in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
That a lot of it works is a tribute to both Washington’s train-like forward motion and Lee’s increasingly energetic direction. The opening scenes of the film are weirdly static, not in an elegant fashion like the work of Kurosawa himself, but in a perfunctory, ‘just stick the camera here’ way. But Lee seems to find his rhythm as he goes along, and no one can shoot New York City quite like him (with the help of ace cinematographer Matthew Libatique). Speaking of trains, there is a suspenseful scene on an elevated car that homages the original movie but is undercut by cross-cutting to both an admittedly lovely Puerto Rican parade (and a few distracting cameos) plus throngs of Yankees fans filling up the train on the way to the stadium. These are things that Lee loves about his city but they prove a little jarring here. A later, climactic fight scene, also staged atop an elevated line, is much more successful.
Along the way, Lee touches on changes in the music industry, the content of music itself, whether fame on social media is a good thing or not (“attention is the biggest form of currency,” David says to his son), and the tensions inherent between the elite and working classes. It’s a lot, it doesn’t always cohere well, and it’s not helped by one of the most intrusive scores we’ve heard in some time. Howard Drossin’s loud orchestral cues continually threaten to swamp the movie, incessantly braying in the background to irritating effect.
Cast and Performances
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
Denzel Washington is in powerhouse form here, exuding a looseness and spontaneity that also charged his performance in 2024’s ‘Gladiator II.’ He embodies David King almost perfectly from start to finish, from the man’s narcissism to his empathy to his pride. In the end, King is a decent man of multitudes and action, even if he sometimes acts on impulses that can get him in trouble, making the moments when he shows uncertainty or selfishness all the more striking. Washington handles the character’s transformative arc with the skill and dexterity that only one of our greatest living actors could provide.
Equally sensational is Jeffrey Wright as Paul, another three-dimensional character whose pain over the fact that his child’s life is in the hands of the man who has been his benefactor up to this point is evident in his face and body. Paul and David are lifelong friends but separated in many ways by experience and fortune, and the former’s fear and anger are made palpable through Wright’s excellent portrayal. The two leads’ scenes together are among the best in the film.
The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Ilfenesh Hadera is poised, warm, and elegant as Pam King, but the sense of her position and power in the family structure and as David’s trusted adviser is only intermittent. A$AP Rocky, meanwhile, makes a sharp impression as Yung Felon, the rapper-turned-kidnapper whose own life story is inextricably linked to David’s in ways that the latter only belatedly realizes. John Douglas Thompson, Michael Potts, and Wendell Pierce all bring regality and gravitas to their relatively minor roles, while Aubrey Joseph and Elijah Wright – as the two teen boys at the center of the story – are raw and real if somewhat unpolished.
Final Thoughts
Spike Lee poses backstage with the Oscar® for adapted screenplay during the live ABC Telecast of The 91st Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Credit/Provider: Mike Baker / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.
While it’s a “remake” in the loosest sense of the word, any movie that finds Denzel Washington in a rhyme battle with A$AP Rocky with his life possibly on the line can’t be described as anything but original. But this also isn’t Spike Lee at either his sharpest or tightest (more recent examples of that would be ‘Da 5 Bloods’ and ‘BlacKkKlansman’), and the fact that the movie ends with not one but two musical numbers (each representing a direction that David could take with his career, toward easy commercialism or something more soulful) is a hint that Lee’s cinematic instincts are not always what they once were.
Still, those performances and Lee’s vaunted, improvisatory aesthetic keeps the movie crackling even when it threatens to collapse within itself. And the ideas contained within are thoughtful, important ones. Despite its name, the movie never hits either the highs or lows of the rest of Lee’s filmography – but with due respect to Kurosawa, it’s all Spike Lee.
“All $$ ain’t good $$.”
When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the “best ears in the business”, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Highest 2 Lowest’?
When a legendary music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business,” is targeted with a ransom plot, he is caught up in a life-or-death moral dilemma in this reimagining of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller ‘High and Low,’ now played out on the mean streets of modern-day New York City.
Who is in the cast of ‘Highest 2 Lowest’?
- Denzel Washington as David King
- Jeffrey Wright as Paul Christopher
- Ilfenesh Hadera as Pam King
- A$AP Rocky as Yung Felon
- Ice Spice as Marisol Cepeda
- Dean Winters as Detective Higgins
- John Douglas Thompson as Detective Earl Bridges
- LaChanze as Detective Bell
- Aubrey Joseph as Trey King
- Michael Potts as Patrick Bethea
- Wendell Pierce as Gabe
- Elijah Wright as Kyle Christopher
‘Highest 2 Lowest’ will open in theaters on August 15th. Photo: A24.
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