Chris Knipp
08-25-2025, 06:59 PM
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST (Spike Lee) - Premiered out of Competition at Cannes
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20H2L.jpg
DENZEL WASHINGTON IN HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
OFFICIAL TEASER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2V8znYMSk&ab_channel=A24)
It's uneven, but winning in places
Premiering Out of Competition at Cannes in May, Highest 2 Lowest was thoroughly covered by Anglo critics. It emerged that Spike Lees's new film was a cracking good New York-set Black (African American) noir respectfully riffing off Kurosawa's masterful 1963 HIGH AND LOW and starring Denzel Washington (their fifth collaboration) with Jeffrey Wright. It's about a kidnapping (just like the Kurosawa) but also has pungent things to say about where the USA is going. Robert Daniels reviewed it for ROGEREBERT.COM (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/highest-2-lowest-spike-lee-film-review-2025) and gave it three and a half out of four stars. Over and over, Daniels said, it seems one thing, then is another, is an "unpredictable crime thriller that zips when you expect it to zoom." seems a bad Spike-Denzel collaboration, then is a great one; its opening image seems a loss of touch, then is masterful; seems a faithful Kurosawa High and Low adaptation, then isn't one; seems "a long-winded procedural," then isn't one, and so on. Peter Debruge in VARIETY (https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/highest-2-lowest-review-spike-lee-1236402884/) explained Denzel Washington plays a music mogul who faces a series of big moral choices in a film "whose sensational third act more than justifies what might have seemed an unnecessary update." Did this mean it's uneven? Yes. In fact "brother bro" in his CANNES RECAP #3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfv55_2f6Y&ab_channel=TheOscarExpert), strongly confirmed that the early part is not at all up to the last part, that the film is "weirdly inconsistent," the music "absolutely terrible," apparently throughout. Nonetheless mainstream American critics seemed to see Highest 2 Lowest as confirming that Lee's still (pretty much) on a roll as he has been since 2018's BlackKKKlansman.
Overall the critical reaction emerged as positive, but not ecstatic. David Rodney in Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/highest-2-lowest-review-denzel-washington-spike-lee-1236221654/) said the film's "precision-tooled plot engine, snappy pacing and crackling energy recall the technique of Lee's Inside Man." The screenplay is by Alan Fox, based on the novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain and the Akira Kurosawa film mentioned, which also was based on King's Ransom.
Released in theaters August 22 by A24, the film will ultimately stream on AppleTV September 5. The reviews may tell more than you want to know, but Debruge - this caught my eye - identified a scene at a Puerto Rican Day parade in he film that is "a spectacular sequence that instantly ranks among the best New York City action set-pieces of all time, up there with the chase scene in 'The French Connection' and the Five Points battle in 'Gangs of New York.'" This is a reminder that Spike is very much a New York guy.
My take? First of all, I advise you not to watch Kurosawa's High and Low first as preparation for Highest 2 Lowest, as I did. Lee's film just isn't up to the competition. It's not that kind of brilliant precision, action, suspense powerhouse, which I had not seen before and immediately made me say, "This is like Hitchcock, only better." The obtrusive piano score in the first half of Spike Lee's movie is indeed remarkably bad, a strange and distracting mistake, as if a score composed for a wholly different film.
I was struck that Spike is using this kidnapping theme to refocus, quite intensively, on an African American milieu, this time a rich glitzy one of a music mogul of the somewhat lamely named "Stackin' Hits Records," with a glamorous wife, a handsome athletic young son, and a flashy penthouse style New York apartment. His chauffeur Paul (Jeffrey Wright) is Black, and an ex-convict who is also a Muslim. The kidnapper is a jive-talking Black man. The police too are Black. Kurosawa was not doing that sort of thing: his rich man is generic, his digs rich but neutral. Since his mogul is Mifune he's impressive, certainly, but his wife is more low key, his son and the other boy both small and vulnerable and not played up to by the parents or the film. Spike's trappings distract from the action itself. These changes in setting and milieu can be distracting - in fact, aren't they meant to be? But they also come off as inauthentic at times. The family declarations of love keep seeming rote. But that may be intended too, because Spike's family is hollow, its leader no longer caring about music as he used to when he walked halfway across the city ecstatic about a new talent, he and his son out of touch, his fortune fading.
My favorite scene in the first half, notably quite unrelated to Kurosawa, is one between Denzel's character and his screen teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), wno's an athlete but also into music - but his dad has put off listening to a band the boy recommends. The dad goes to Trey's room to connect with hm. Trey tells his father he must pay the demanded $17.5 million in Swiss francs even though the one kidnapped now, as pre the original, isn't the rich man's son but Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his chauffeur Paul, because if he doesn't pay he'll be despised and Trey won't be able to finish high school and no college will accept him. As the unwilling father walks out of Trey's room, Trey says: "David King, my father: the best ears in the business - and the coldest heart." A powerful moment.
Otherwise, Denzel's and Jeffrey Wright's high energy performances power the first half, but it's just so undermined by that loud, inappropriate music and moments when the rhythm is off. As for the rest, it all goes on a little long. But Spike comes up with some original ideas that make this indeed, a "Spike Lee joint." I like it when "King David" and his kidnapper Young Felon (A$AP Rocky a.k.a. Rakim Mayers) are trading rapper quips face to face, and all that follows. This is an uneven, lopsided piece of work, but I would not take it off the market. There is much to enjoy in it and a surprising amount of heart.
Highest 2 Lowest, 133 mins., decuted at Cannes Out of Competition May 19, 2025, U.S. Limited release August 15, internet September 5. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/highest-2-lowest/) rating: 74%.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20H2L.jpg
DENZEL WASHINGTON IN HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
OFFICIAL TEASER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2V8znYMSk&ab_channel=A24)
It's uneven, but winning in places
Premiering Out of Competition at Cannes in May, Highest 2 Lowest was thoroughly covered by Anglo critics. It emerged that Spike Lees's new film was a cracking good New York-set Black (African American) noir respectfully riffing off Kurosawa's masterful 1963 HIGH AND LOW and starring Denzel Washington (their fifth collaboration) with Jeffrey Wright. It's about a kidnapping (just like the Kurosawa) but also has pungent things to say about where the USA is going. Robert Daniels reviewed it for ROGEREBERT.COM (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/highest-2-lowest-spike-lee-film-review-2025) and gave it three and a half out of four stars. Over and over, Daniels said, it seems one thing, then is another, is an "unpredictable crime thriller that zips when you expect it to zoom." seems a bad Spike-Denzel collaboration, then is a great one; its opening image seems a loss of touch, then is masterful; seems a faithful Kurosawa High and Low adaptation, then isn't one; seems "a long-winded procedural," then isn't one, and so on. Peter Debruge in VARIETY (https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/highest-2-lowest-review-spike-lee-1236402884/) explained Denzel Washington plays a music mogul who faces a series of big moral choices in a film "whose sensational third act more than justifies what might have seemed an unnecessary update." Did this mean it's uneven? Yes. In fact "brother bro" in his CANNES RECAP #3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfv55_2f6Y&ab_channel=TheOscarExpert), strongly confirmed that the early part is not at all up to the last part, that the film is "weirdly inconsistent," the music "absolutely terrible," apparently throughout. Nonetheless mainstream American critics seemed to see Highest 2 Lowest as confirming that Lee's still (pretty much) on a roll as he has been since 2018's BlackKKKlansman.
Overall the critical reaction emerged as positive, but not ecstatic. David Rodney in Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/highest-2-lowest-review-denzel-washington-spike-lee-1236221654/) said the film's "precision-tooled plot engine, snappy pacing and crackling energy recall the technique of Lee's Inside Man." The screenplay is by Alan Fox, based on the novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain and the Akira Kurosawa film mentioned, which also was based on King's Ransom.
Released in theaters August 22 by A24, the film will ultimately stream on AppleTV September 5. The reviews may tell more than you want to know, but Debruge - this caught my eye - identified a scene at a Puerto Rican Day parade in he film that is "a spectacular sequence that instantly ranks among the best New York City action set-pieces of all time, up there with the chase scene in 'The French Connection' and the Five Points battle in 'Gangs of New York.'" This is a reminder that Spike is very much a New York guy.
My take? First of all, I advise you not to watch Kurosawa's High and Low first as preparation for Highest 2 Lowest, as I did. Lee's film just isn't up to the competition. It's not that kind of brilliant precision, action, suspense powerhouse, which I had not seen before and immediately made me say, "This is like Hitchcock, only better." The obtrusive piano score in the first half of Spike Lee's movie is indeed remarkably bad, a strange and distracting mistake, as if a score composed for a wholly different film.
I was struck that Spike is using this kidnapping theme to refocus, quite intensively, on an African American milieu, this time a rich glitzy one of a music mogul of the somewhat lamely named "Stackin' Hits Records," with a glamorous wife, a handsome athletic young son, and a flashy penthouse style New York apartment. His chauffeur Paul (Jeffrey Wright) is Black, and an ex-convict who is also a Muslim. The kidnapper is a jive-talking Black man. The police too are Black. Kurosawa was not doing that sort of thing: his rich man is generic, his digs rich but neutral. Since his mogul is Mifune he's impressive, certainly, but his wife is more low key, his son and the other boy both small and vulnerable and not played up to by the parents or the film. Spike's trappings distract from the action itself. These changes in setting and milieu can be distracting - in fact, aren't they meant to be? But they also come off as inauthentic at times. The family declarations of love keep seeming rote. But that may be intended too, because Spike's family is hollow, its leader no longer caring about music as he used to when he walked halfway across the city ecstatic about a new talent, he and his son out of touch, his fortune fading.
My favorite scene in the first half, notably quite unrelated to Kurosawa, is one between Denzel's character and his screen teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), wno's an athlete but also into music - but his dad has put off listening to a band the boy recommends. The dad goes to Trey's room to connect with hm. Trey tells his father he must pay the demanded $17.5 million in Swiss francs even though the one kidnapped now, as pre the original, isn't the rich man's son but Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his chauffeur Paul, because if he doesn't pay he'll be despised and Trey won't be able to finish high school and no college will accept him. As the unwilling father walks out of Trey's room, Trey says: "David King, my father: the best ears in the business - and the coldest heart." A powerful moment.
Otherwise, Denzel's and Jeffrey Wright's high energy performances power the first half, but it's just so undermined by that loud, inappropriate music and moments when the rhythm is off. As for the rest, it all goes on a little long. But Spike comes up with some original ideas that make this indeed, a "Spike Lee joint." I like it when "King David" and his kidnapper Young Felon (A$AP Rocky a.k.a. Rakim Mayers) are trading rapper quips face to face, and all that follows. This is an uneven, lopsided piece of work, but I would not take it off the market. There is much to enjoy in it and a surprising amount of heart.
Highest 2 Lowest, 133 mins., decuted at Cannes Out of Competition May 19, 2025, U.S. Limited release August 15, internet September 5. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/highest-2-lowest/) rating: 74%.