‘Highest 2 Lowest' review: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's latest collaboration is one of the year's best movies
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Toronto Sun
2 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Denzel Washington slams Jerry Jones and the state of the Dallas Cowboys
Academy Award-winning actor took aim at the NFL team's owner/GM during appearance on ESPN's First Take while promoting latest movie. Actor Denzel Washington (left) and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. AP, Getty Images Denzel Washington is one of the best actors in the world, but there was nothing fake about the ire he showed towards the NFL team he has supported since he was a kid. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The two-time Academy Award-winner tore into the Dallas Cowboys – specifically owner Jerry Jones — during an appearance on ESPN's First Take , saying that the franchise cares more about earning money than trophies. Washington made the comments while promoting his latest movie, Highest 2 Lowes t, with director Spike Lee. The film is the pair's first collaboration since Inside Man in 2006. 'I've been a Cowboys fan since the '60s. He's making it hard for me,' Washington said about Jones. 'Not to be a fan, because I'm still a Cowboys fan. I'm still going to have the star on the side of the hat, but he ain't thinking about us. He's thinking about his pocket.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Washington appeared to be referencing the Cowboys contract standoff with pass rusher Micah Parsons, who is in the final year of his contract and looking for an extension. In fact, the tense negotiations have broken down to the point that the superstar posted a trade request on social media, adding that he 'no longer wants to play for the Dallas Cowboys.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. During negotiations, Jones also appeared to take shots at Parsons through comments to the media. 'There's box office and there's Oscars, Jerry,' Washington said. 'Been a while, huh? Ain't been to the show, you wouldn't know … what it is to win.' Washington added that his critiques of the team only come because of how much he cares for the franchise. 'And I love the Cowboys! I love the Cowboys. Because I really love them, this is why I feel the way I feel,' Washington said. Read More The actor, however, did get in one final shot at Jones when he paraphrased a tagline for his new movie: 'All money ain't good money, Jerry.' While the Cowboys haven't won a Super Bowl since 1995 — and haven't even appeared in a NFC conference championship game since then, either – the franchise remains the most valuable in the world. In fact, it became the first franchise to reach US$10 billion last year. The team also is set to feature in a high-profile Netflix docuseries, America's Team: The Gambler and his Cowboys , which premieres next week on the streaming service. Crime Editorial Cartoons Sunshine Girls Relationships Toronto Blue Jays
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky had a rap battle. One is claiming victory
NEW YORK (AP) — A$AP Rocky had no idea Denzel Washington was going to throw Nas at him. Midway through Spike Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest,' a New York riff on Akira Kurosawa's 'High to Low,' wealthy music executive David King (Washington) has cornered aspiring rapper Yung Felon (Rocky) after he tried to kidnap King's son. They meet in a music studio. A rap battle ensues. While the scene was scripted, much of what Washington freestyled — mixing in lines from Nas, Tupac, DMX and others — startled his professional rapper co-star. 'I'm like: How does this man know who Moneybagg Yo is?' Rocky says, sitting alongside Washington. 'And I'm 70,' Washington says with a grin. 'Highest 2 Lowest,' which A24 releases in theaters Friday, two weeks before it lands on Apple TV+, is a heist thriller that hits hardest when Washington and Rocky are going at it. Washington, o ne of the mightiest of living actors, is, of course, an imposing presence. Even though Rocky might usually have the upper hand in the studio, he's just beginning to prove himself as an actor. 'Denzel is such a powerful force. Not a derogatory term, but he's a beast,' Lee said. 'Rocky is from Harlem, uptown. So I knew that he's not going to punk out. He's going to stand there, feet planted to the ground, as a heavyweight fight, blow to blow to blow. If you got somebody who don't got it, Denzel is going to slaughter them. SLAUGHTER.' But in 'Highest 2 Lowest,' Rocky proves that he can go toe-to-toe with a titan like Washington. In the annals of movie face-offs between the veteran and the up-and-comer, the scene is a riveting showdown. Not that Rocky is claiming victory. 'I had to go with the flow with him,' Rocky says. 'You've got to realize this guy's a pro. He's a wordsmith for real. It's not a joke. So when he went, I caught his drift. But I lost a rap battle to this man. And I'm a professional f—— rapper.' With that Washington roars and slams the table. 'But I'm using other people's material,' he adds. 'And I've been practicing.' 'It doesn't matter,' replies Rocky. 'I lost, man. It's unfortunate that that's my profession in real life.' Washington's rapping skills But as he showed in a recent interview, Washington's envy for his co-star's day job is more than for show. Washington's hip-hop affection runs deep. Asked how he approached the big scene with Rocky, Washington takes out his phone and begins playing Nas' 'N.Y. State of Mind' and raps along: 'I keep some E&J, sittin' bent up in the stairway.' 'All right, would you ever in a million years expect the Denzel Washington to be able to recite classic quotes and lines from hip-hop?' exclaims Rocky. But Washington was just getting started. He grandly spat a verse of DMX ('Lucky that you breathing, but you dead from the waist down'), a few bars of Outkast ('Yes, we done come along way like them slim-ass cigarettes') and cackled joyfully at a line from Samara Cyn and Smino's 'Brand New Teeth': 'Spent my rent money on these brand-new teeth.' 'For me on the outside looking in, it was like this guy was Method acting,' Rocky says. 'He was just being himself. He should have been a rapper.' Washington shakes his head. 'No, I play one on TV.' Yet Washington has as much facility with Wizkid as he does Shakespeare or August Wilson. Pushed to explain his mentality going into the scene, Washington still demurs. 'I can't, man. I don't have one,' he says. 'I just flow. I can't tell you what I'm going to do, because I don't know. I never know how it's going to go. I don't plan. But I have been practicing for a long time, and nobody knew! I never had the platform.' 'I'm still on top' In 'Highest 2 Lowest,' Lee — in his fifth film with Washington — surveys a changing entertainment industry. Washington's once supreme music executive is losing his grip on what sells — and what sells matters less than how many followers someone has. The movie weaves in some of Lee's other obsessions — the New York Yankees; New York, itself — but it casts the moral questions of Kurosawa's classic against a media landscape where authenticity can be hard to find. Asked if he identified with his character's quandary, Washington pauses to consider the question. 'If I had an ego, I'd say no, because I'm still on top,' says Washington. 'And I'm getting better.' Rocky, though, sees some of himself in Yung Felon. It's a moniker Rocky, himself, suggested replace the scripted name, MC Microphone Checka. Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, shot 'Highest 2 Lowest' in the run-up to his recent trial over a 2021 incident in which Rocky was accused of firing a gun at Terell Ephron, a former friend and collaborator known as A$AP Relli. Rocky was found not guilty in February on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. The verdict gave Rocky a new lease on life just as his film career might be taking off. He also co-stars in the upcoming 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You,' a hit at Sundance. Meanwhile, he's preparing his long-awaited fourth album, 'Don't Be Dumb.' Who are 'the new rappers'? For Rocky, the music industry backdrop of 'Highest 2 Lowest' rings true. Music sales, he notes, are way down. Artificial intelligence is taking over. 'They've got to figure out how to regulate it,' Rocky says. 'People in music are already doing it. Not to put nobody on the spot, there are people with No. 1 records and it's not even them. It's not even their voice on the track.' 'This is a smart kid here,' says Washington. But Washington is resistant. 'People trying to sound like me don't sound like me, to me,' he says, doubting artificial intelligence's potential. He peppers Rocky with questions. Rocky, 36, already sounds like an old-timer. 'The kids, they don't want to be rappers anymore,' Rocky says. 'They don't want to be ballers. They want to be streamers. It's basically another word for 'YouTuber.' They all want to be YouTubers, I promise you.' Washington: 'How will they make money doing that?' Rocky: 'They make all the money now.' Washington: 'From what? What do they do? Without the talent, without the thing to go see…' Rocky: 'What's the substance? That's what I'm saying is the big question. The performers are obsolete. Nobody's watching. Nobody cares. They'd rather watch an 18-year-old with millions of viewers open up a bag of chips and tell you how good it is. These guys are the new rappers.' But for now, at least in 'Highest 2 Lowest,' Rocky and Washington are still the performers. They're the rappers, even the two-time Oscar winner. Rocky, who grew up watching Washington in 'Malcolm X,' can hardly believe it. 'He gives you that confidence he walks around with,' Rocky says. 'A lot of times, people tell me that I embody this self-confidence — I see it all in him. Just him embracing me, them embracing me, it was so chill. I waited my whole life for this.' 'Me too!' bellows Washington, with a laugh. 'And that's the truth! I've been a closet rapper for 40 years. Finally I get the chance.'
Toronto Star
21 hours ago
- Toronto Star
‘Highest 2 Lowest' review: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's latest collaboration is one of the year's best movies
As the legendary (and fictional) record producer David King — a.k.a. King — in Spike Lee's new thriller, 'Highest 2 Lowest,' Denzel Washington evokes authentic music moguls like Russell Simmons and Quincy Jones. He's also, clearly, playing a hybrid version of himself and his director — a phenomenally successful Black entertainer who finds himself with no worlds left to conquer.
