Spike Lee has seen too many films.
How else to elucidate “Highest 2 Lowest,” a farcical thriller the place practically each twist feels prefer it was cribbed from a lesser movie. Shouldn’t Lee know higher?
Even worse, he doesn’t know what to do with one among our biggest residing actors. Sure, Lee and Denzel Washington made magic up to now, however the actor’s function right here by no means is sensible.
Not to start with, center or finish of the movie. That’s film magic in reverse.
Washington stars as David King, a music mogul struggling by means of knowledgeable disaster. Ought to he promote his firm and money out after some lean years? Or might he reinvest in Stackin’ Hits Information and show he’s not a one-career surprise?
That call will get shelved when his teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) is kidnapped. The crooks need a few of Daddy’s hundreds of thousands to set him free. Quite a lot of his hundreds of thousands, to be exact.
David will do something to avoid wasting his son, however what occurs when the kidnapping disaster adjustments, and it’s now not his son who wants saving? The movie’s ethical compass begins to spin, and now the daddy in disaster is David’s chauffeur and longtime good friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright).
The screenplay, credited to Alan Fox however bearing all of the hallmarks of Lee’s worldview, drops loads of exposition within the first half hour. What it doesn’t supply is psychological depth, the sort a film like this calls for.
Washington makes David King each conceited and conflicted, his mannerisms suggesting a tough and tumble previous smoothed over by a long time of maximum wealth. However who is that this David King? The screenplay isn’t positive, leaving Washington to sometimes overact to promote the efficiency.
It’s one among his weaker efforts, full cease.
“Highest 2 Lowest” is a Spike Lee Joint by means of and thru. The movie peddles black empowerment at a near-constant clip, from a fawning picture of Kamala Harris prominently featured in a single scene to lingering close-ups of black artwork adorning David’s residence.
It doesn’t finish there, and when Lee isn’t promoting cultural cues, he’s admiring the Large Apple.
“Highest 2 Lowest” rivals peak Woody Allen in its adoration of all issues New York Metropolis. Puerto Rican tradition. Glowing skyscrapers. Aaron Choose and the New York Yankees. It performs out as endlessly self-indulgent, extra indicators of Lee signaling his pursuits quite than constructing an hermetic story.
(Private apart: This critic was born in The Bronx, adores the Yankees and grew up on Lengthy Island, and I discovered it suffocating)
Lee’s movie, a free replace on Akira Kurosawa’s “Excessive and Low,” makes an attempt some crude social commentary in between kidnapping updates. Suppose fears of being “canceled” and model safety within the digital age, together with a swipe at A.I. None of it’s compelling or nuanced, nor does it elevate the stakes of the important thing storylines.
The movie’s third act is a large number, together with a confrontation that’s as head-slapping dumb as any horror film cliche.
Spike Lee displays on working with Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky in “Highest 2 Lowest.” pic.twitter.com/ERTqnx7pIK
— E! Information (@enews) August 12, 2025
A real vibrant spot is an prolonged look by rapper A$AP Rocky, enjoying a musician who admires David King’s rise to fame. Lee channels the rapper’s vitality to perfection, giving the movie an simple pulse. The cinematography can also be a plus, together with a gap montage of Manhattan visuals that’s each apparent and exhilarating.
Lee additionally levels a key kidnapping sequence with the talents he’s sharpened over time. What a disgrace that it makes little sense and is repeatedly interrupted by Lee’s New York fetishizing.
Love New York all you need, however make it natural to the story. Please.
The remaining? “Highest 2 Lowest” feels synthetic from begin to end, a film made by somebody disconnected from the actual world. Fame can do this to an artist, even an Oscar winner like Lee. The proof stains each body of “Highest 2 Lowest.”
HiT or Miss: Spike Lee films are by no means uninteresting. Sadly, they’re typically not superb, both. “Highest 2 Lowest” falls into the latter class.