Highest 2 Lowest (dir. Spike Lee)

by Jack Martin | Sep 5, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 133 mins

UK Distributor: Apple TV+

UK Release Date: 5 September 2025

WHO’S IN HIGHEST 2 LOWEST?

Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, Ice Spice, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, Aubrey Joseph, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, Frederick Weller, Elijah Wright, Princess Nokia, Jensen McRae, Aiyana-Lee, Andy McQueen, Nicholas Turturro, Eddie Palmieri, Anthony Ramos, Rosie Perez

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Spike Lee (director), Alan Fox (writer), Jason Michael Berman and Todd Black (producers), Howard Drossin (composer), Matthew Libatique (cinematographer), Barry Alexander Brown and Allyson C. Johnson (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A music mogul (Washington) is drawn into a ransom plot that tests his humanity…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON HIGHEST 2 LOWEST?

The last time that Spike Lee and Denzel Washington collaborated on a movie, we got the nifty heist thriller Inside Man, which then marked their fourth pairing after Mo’ Better Blues, He Got Game, and of course Malcolm X (which earned the actor an Oscar nomination). It’s taken almost twenty years, but finally the two of them are back together for the fifth time with Highest 2 Lowest, which funnily enough feels much more like a companion piece to Inside Man than their other movies, not just in that they’re both contemporary crime thrillers but in how they show considerable restraint with Lee’s often overt directorial style as well as Washington’s crowd-pleasing movie star persona.

In both cases, they bring out something special in each talent, and like Inside Man before it Highest 2 Lowest is a fun and neatly polished bit of entertainment that offers the best of each collaborator.

A remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, itself based on Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom, the film takes place in New York – it’s a Spike Lee joint, so why wouldn’t it be? – and stars Washington as David King, a wealthy and influential music mogul who’s making steps to avoid a buyout of his record label by purchasing it back and assuming full control of the company. Those plans are put on ice, however, when David receives a phone call informing him that his teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) has been kidnapped and held for a $17.5 million ransom… only to quickly learn that, thanks to a mix-up, the kidnappers have instead taken the son of David’s chauffeur Paul (Jeffrey Wright), but are still demanding the hefty payout. So begins a bit of soul-searching for David as he wrestles with doing what is right while also saving face with his own business ventures.

Several of Lee’s lively traits are present here – the New York setting, the stylish double dolly zooms, and sudden fourth-wall breaks among them – but Highest 2 Lowest sees the filmmaker adopt a more classicist approach that recalls the work of the director whose film inspired this very one. The influence of Kurosawa is all over Lee’s film, albeit with the latter director’s own distinct flavour, as he incorporates a slightly more melodramatic tone reminiscent of Kurosawa’s more tender films like Ikiru (recently given its own English-language remake with Living) and, indeed, High and Low, complete with a seemingly intentionally overblown musical score layered over tender moments between characters. In true classicism style, Lee also lets the heavily descriptive dialogue within Alan Fox’s script do much of the dramatic heavy lifting instead of distracting the viewer with his flashy oeuvre, creating a narrative that you’re able to easily follow along with and become absorbed by, enough to keep itself engaging and sometimes even heartfelt in spite of its occasional heavy-handedness.

As for Washington, it goes without saying that he’s on top form here, giving a humanist rendition of a cutthroat businessman faced with personal and professional setbacks for decisions that are ultimately out of his control. He’s great in scenes where he delivers borderline Shakespearian monologues with his reliable charisma which allows him to command the screen at all times, even opposite the likes of similar heavy-hitters like Jeffrey Wright, who while not given as much to do still has a few strong moments of utter despair and desperation, and rapper-turned-actor ASAP Rocky who shows up later in a prominent role and engages in a literal war of words with the Oscar-winner. There are even parts where he gets to fulfil his action hero quota in one or two slightly out-of-place sequences involving some rather tense subway journeys, which nonetheless offer something for viewers fond of any period from Denzel’s career.

As in Inside Man, or indeed any of their past collaborations, both filmmaker and actor go hand-in-hand together as they complement each other’s unique energy and talent with their own, all in service of a compelling narrative that engrosses the viewer and keeps them thoroughly entertained. However, as can sometimes be the case with Spike Lee, the film occasionally gets a bit too carried away with itself, to where you’ll be paying more attention to the overbearing score in certain scenes than on the actual storytelling, or to whenever Lee suddenly opts for 16mm celluloid footage over digital cinematography for certain scenes set throughout the New York streets. Lee just about gets away with it because such scenes are well-shot and well-composed, not to mention that this is more in line with his regular filmmaking style, but every so often you can sense that not even Denzel Washington can bring the director down a notch.

Though it occasionally betrays its own classicist approach, Highest 2 Lowest remains an engaging union between two powerhouse talents that may not be on par with some of their other works but nonetheless does exactly what it needs to do. It may also be the last time we see such a healthy dynamic, given recent reports of Washington possibly considering retirement, so if this is indeed the final hurrah of this particular duo, then at least they’re ending things on a mostly triumphant high instead of a disappointing low.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Highest 2 Lowest is a fun new collaboration between director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington, who both bring out the best in one another during a predominantly classicist rendition of Akira Kurosawa’s classic High and Low that only occasionally gets too carried away with its distinct flavour.