Latest news with #DotheRightThing
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
From courtside to Croisette, Spike Lee brings basketball trash talk to a contentious Cannes
CANNES, France — At the premiere of Spike Lee's new movie, 'Highest 2 Lowest,' a woman squeezed into my row, sighing that she'd been held up by a Samoyed traipsing the red carpet in a ruffled gown. 'Blocked by a dog in a dress!' she said with a huff. The dog, Felicity, attended as the plus-one of an animal rights activist representing a U.K. group called NoToDogMeat. Still, even Felicity was out-glammed by that night's center of attention, Lee, who held court in Knicks-themed couture, a blue-and-orange-striped zoot suit with matching fedora and spectacles. 'Highest 2 Lowest,' a reworking of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime drama 'High and Low,' stars Denzel Washington as a wealthy record-label executive who gets squeezed for a $17.5 million ransom by kidnappers who claim they've taken his son. As Washington made his way into the Grand Théâtre Lumière, he looked pleasantly confused when a photographer caught his attention by waving a shiny quartz stone at him. A few minutes later, the actor was doubly delighted and startled when Cannes director Thierry Frémaux announced he was received an even shinier object: a surprise honorary Palme d'Or, along with a career-spanning montage that rewound all the way back to Washington's first film role in 1981's 'Carbon Copy.' 'It's a very special day,' Frémaux said onstage, gesturing to Lee in his orchestra seat. 'Because it's what, the 30th anniversary of 'Do the Right Thing?' Or the 40th?' Lee cupped his hands around his mouth. '36!' he yelled. Yes, let's be precise. 'Do the Right Thing' debuted in that very theater 36 years ago to the day — possibly even to the hour. At that Cannes in 1989, Lee figured he had a good shot at winning the Palme d'Or. He lost to Steven Soderbergh's 'sex, lies, and videotape.' Legend has it that jury president Wim Wenders refused to award 'Do the Right Thing' anything, arguing that Lee's act of destruction at the movie's incendiary climax wasn't heroic. Lee countered that he had a Louisville Slugger with Wenders name on it. Timing is everything. Not just for 'Do the Right Thing,' which today is an inarguable masterpiece, or for Lee, who reminded the crowd that it was also Malcolm X's 100th birthday. Timing matters to every audacious artist. Bold works can hit with such a wallop that it takes a beat to gauge their lasting impact, to tell which set of brass knuckles left a mark: love or hate? Cannes takes risk on divisive movies, on big swings. Last year's festival launched the best picture Oscar contenders 'Anora,' 'Emilia Perez' and 'The Substance.' I only liked one of them, but each gave us plenty to argue about. This year, I was enchanted to meet a critic who said she'd loathed three movies so far, and every title she named was one of my favorites. I asked her to let me know if she came across anything else she hates. I'd like to see it. Besides Ari Aster's 'Eddington' (I dug, she despised), the most polarizing film of Cannes 2025 is turning out to be Lynne Ramsay's 'Die, My Love,' which stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson as new parents who are disastrously not up to the challenge. Lawrence has the showier meltdown. A former New Yorker uprooted to the countryside, Grace suffers from a postpartum depression that makes her feel like like a dreary wraith. She acts out to prove she's alive, which here mostly translates as her expressing a need to get shagged. Mubi, a distributor that tends to have impeccable taste, purchased 'Die My Love' for an eyebrow-cocking $24 million. I couldn't stand the movie, but buying it makes some sense as Lawrence hurls herself into the kind of battering performance that gets awards attention, especially after what Mubi learned last year as it maneuvered 'The Substance's' Demi Moore all the way to the Academy Awards. Of the two leads, I'd slightly favor giving a prize to Pattinson, who has the subtler and more pathetic role of the mealy, over-matched husband, Jackson, so clueless he tries to cheer up Grace and their crying baby by bringing home an even whinier dog. With apologies to Felicity, the film's mutt is so obnoxious that you can't wait for the inevitable moment when it disappears from the story. The better sadomasochistic romance is in 'Pillion,' an attention-grabby tryst between a dorky male meter maid (Harry Melling) and a domineering biker (Alexander Skarsgård) who runs with a gang where every macho man has a hogtied boyfriend at his command. 'I hope that it makes some of you a little bit horny,' said its director Harry Lighton as he introduced the film. It definitely left the audience tickled, especially at the gleam in Melling's eyes as he licks Skarsgård's leather boots. 'Pillion' isn't judgmental, but it also doesn't expect Melling's naif to like everything his partner orders him to do. It's about finding one's own boundaries. And it's funny, too, especially with Melling's adorably British parents (Lesley Sharp and Douglas Hodge) conceding that their son's special someone is handsome, although they must insist that both lads wear helmets when they go speeding off. Most of the major titles have now premiered. While I'm not homesick, I did think the only good part of Hubert Charuel's 'Meteors,' an addiction-themed buddy dramedy, was when a character wore a vintage Lakers jersey. In the 11 days I've been here, a few themes have emerged. Whatever you do, don't swig rosé every time a dog dies (thrice) or whenever someone shoots up heroin or mentions God (exponentially more). You'll be hungover by noon. Kristen Stewart's directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water' follows a boozy, damaged poet who could keep pace with that drinking game. Imogen Poots is quite good as Lidia, a self-destructive life-guzzler who, over the course of the film, goes from 17-years-old to middle-aged, a time span she mostly spends wasted. Stewart has made an assured mess: a bleary, florid and sometimes lyrical film that could stand to be doused by a bucket of ice water. At the very least, there's no denying that Stewart has artistic conviction. That's more than one can say about lots of other projects orbiting the festival's main selection. After the screening, I wandered downstairs to the festival's concurrent marketplace, the Marché du Film, where sales rights are negotiated and budgets hopefully secured, and saw producers giddily capitalizing on classic IP that's recently gone into the public domain. One studio was hawking 'Bambi: The Reckoning,' 'Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,' and 'Pinocchio Unstrung,' whose tagline teased, 'There's nothing holding him back.' Who knows, maybe they'll be brilliant? My most-anticipated film of the festival was Julia Ducournau's 'Alpha.' The French provocateur won 2021's Palme d'Or for her 'Titane,' a piece of unhinged auto-erotica about a model-slash-serial-killer who gets turned on by cars. Ducournau had launched her career here in 2016 with her gory coming-of-age cannibal film 'Raw.' (I caught up with 'Raw' at its infamous midnight screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, where so many people collapsed that someone called an ambulance.) Before I could watch 'Alpha,' I caught Charlie Polinger's 'The Plague,' a solid body-horror movie about bullies at a preteen water-polo summer camp, which I half-praised by telling someone it was like Ducournau for kids. To my surprise, 'The Plague' and 'Alpha' turned out to share the exact same scene: a 13-year-old social pariah getting beaten up in a swimming pool and bleeding into the water. Maybe I undersold Polinger as 'Raw' 101, or maybe Ducournau is regressing. 'Alpha,' a hazy sci-fi drama, putters after a young girl (Mélissa Boros) who may have gotten herself infected by an unnamed contagion that turns its victims into marble. Her mother (Golshifteh Farahani, great) is a doctor at the hospital where the beds are filled with victims whose faces are petrified into ghastly rictuses. Imagine a plague of Pietàs. Elliptical and dull, 'Alpha' veers between the teenager's indolent storyline and the mom's desperation to rescue both her child and her toxic brother (Tahar Rahim), a mangy, charismatic addict. Only the sibling story is interesting. Rahim has the kind of prominent ribs and veins that were made for statuary. He lives as though he doesn't intend to grow old and when he coughs, we see suspicious puffs of dust. I think Ducournau wants us to ask if we can ever love someone so much as agree to let them die. But she has a hard time getting around to that point. Heavy violins do too much of the talking. Ultimately, so does the score of Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest.' Washington is good as the music mogul weighing whether to pay the exorbitant ransom — no one does bristly better — yet his crisis scenes are so deluged by heaving strings and harps that you can't hear his character think. I desperately wanted to watch the film on mute. But the French subtitles were wonderful. (When Jeffrey Wright, playing Washington's chauffeur, said 'Easy B,' the translation read, 'Cool Abdul.') The second half of the film is simpler and stronger, with a terrific supporting performance by ASAP Rocky as a rapper named Yung Felon. Once it was clear that Lee wasn't as interested in Kurosawa's themes of inequity and despair — that this would be a story of redemption by any means necessary — I wound up liking it simply because Lee is loud about what he loves (and hates). The title comes up over a blue sky in orange font and goes on to insult the Celtics as much as possible. (If the Knicks end up facing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, the music cue Lee will regret is that opening blast of 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'' from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!') Have I seen this year's Oscar contenders? I don't think so. But I've seen plenty of directors presenting exactly the movie they damned well please. And that alone is worth making like Lee and cupping my own hands around my mouth for an enthusiastic yell.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spike Lee Says ‘Highest 2 Lowest' Is Potentially His Last Collaboration With Denzel Washington: 'This Is It—Five'
'The last time I was in this room, I was apologizing for the f*ck-up,' filmmaker Spike Lee joked this morning as he walked into the press conference room in Cannes. The legendary New York filmmaker was referring to 2021, when he served as the Cannes jury president and prematurely announced Titane as the Palme d'Or winner during the closing-night ceremony. More from Deadline Denzel Washington Appears To Have Altercation With Photographer On Cannes Red Carpet Breaking Baz @Cannes: Spike Lee Croons Rodgers & Hammerstein On The Beach But Tunes Out As Talk Turns To Him Making A Movie Musical His Next Project Lynne Ramsay On How Critics Are Misreading Her Buzzy Cannes Title 'Die My Love': "This Postpartum Thing Is Bulls***t" Lee is back here in Cannes with his latest feature, Highest 2 Lowest, a modern 'reinterpretation' of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 classic High and Low, which was itself based on the novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain. While the original follows a shoe company exec who becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom, the new film, set in contemporary New York City, sees a music mogul played by Denzel Washington contend with a similar plot. From Apple and A24, the film reunites Lee and Washington for the first time since Inside Man back in 2006. The duo has worked together five times, their credits are including Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, and He Got Game. 'Denzel and I didn't know that our previous film, Inside Man, was 18 years ago. We were surprised because it felt like yesterday. But we didn't miss a step,' Lee said of working with Washington, who received an honorary Palme d'Or before last night's premiere screening of Highest 2 Lowest. RELATED: 'I think this is it — five,' Lee added of his collaboration with Washington. 'He's been talking about retirement, even though he's just done another deal. Five films together, they stand up.' This is Lee's sixth time in the Cannes Official Selection, and Monday's premiere marked 36 years to the day since his first appearance with Do the Right Thing. During the presser, Lee was asked about the critical response to that film back in 1989, particularly around critics who said it would cause riots. 'I've had a great experience with this festival, and the people who had their various opinions about Do The Right Thing had nothing to do with the festival. It was just the press,' Lee said. RELATED: 'They said Do the Right Thing would cause riots and Black people would lose their minds,' he added. 'They were telling people to hope to God this film didn't open in their neighborhood. It was pure blatant racism to suggest Black people couldn't make the distinction between what's on the screen. They all misread it, and none of them admitted that they f*cked up.' Highest 2 Lowest was shot across New York, with elaborate action scenes in the Bronx, set against the backdrop of Yankee Stadium. During the presser, Lee was asked about shooting in New York and how he thinks the recent drop in production in the city could be resolved. 'People are hurting, people whose lives are dependent on working in the film industry,' he said. 'The guy [Donald Trump] just said he wants to put a tariff on films made outside the United States. I don't know how that's gonna work. But I don't have the answer for that.' The filmmaker said he simply feels lucky to have been able to shoot several films in New York, adding that he often has pushed back on attempts to make him shoot his New York-based films outside the city. RELATED: Full List Of Cannes Palme d'Or Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery 'For Do the Right Thing, they wanted us to shoot that film in Baltimore,' Lee said. 'Get the f*ck outta here. We were never doing that.' Slated to hit select theaters August 22 before arriving on Apple TV+ on September 5, Highest 2 Lowest is written by Alan Fox and Lee. Todd Black produced for Escape Artists, alongside Jason Michael Berman for Mandalay Pictures. Exec producers included Lee for 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, and Mandalay's Peter Guber, as well as Juniper Productions' Matthew Lindner, Chris Brigham, and Katia Washington. Mandalay's Jordan Moldo served as co-producer. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies In Order - See Tom Cruise's 30-Year Journey As Ethan Hunt Denzel Washington's Career In Pictures: From 'Carbon Copy' To 'The Equalizer 3'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spike Lee Shades Trump at Cannes: ‘I Don't Know How Much We Can Talk About American Values Considering Who Is President'
Spike Lee threw some shade at Donald Trump during the Cannes Film Festival press conference for his latest joint 'Highest 2 Lowest.' When asked about if social media has jeopardized morals in America, Lee replied: 'I don't know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president.' He continued: 'My wife said, 'Spike, be very careful what you say!' But here's the thing, I don't think we can condemn social media. People say the same thing about film or whatever. So I'm not going to demonize the form.' More from Variety 'Legally Blonde' Director Robert Luketic to Tackle Survival Thriller 'Resurface' (EXCLUSIVE) Denzel Washington Appears to Fight Back Against Pushy Cannes Photographer and Yells 'Stop!' During Tense Red Carpet Moment Daisy Ridley's 'Young Woman and the Sea' Among 30 Projects to Shoot in Bulgaria in Two Years: 'That Was the Start of a Good Relationship With Disney' Later on, when asked more directly about Trump's proposed tariffs on foreign-made films, Lee said he 'doesn't have the answer for that' but acknowledged that 'people are hurting.' 'No one's working,' Lee said. 'The guy just said he wanted to put a tariff on every film that shot… I don't know how that's going to work.' Keeping true to his promise to his wife, Lee then pivoted to speaking about how 'Do the Right Thing' was originally meant to shoot in Baltimore instead of New York City. 'Like get the fuck out of here, we're not doing that,' Lee said. 'So there's just some things you can't replicate. It's a vibe, it's a energy. So I've been very lucky that I've been able to shoot films, especially ones that take place in New York. I have people who worked on 'Highest 2 Lowest' who worked on 'Do the Right Thing.' I don't have the answer to your question, but people are definitely hurting.' The film's lead stars, Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky, were absent for the press conference, with only Ilfenesh Hadera and Jeffrey Wright joining director Lee on the panel. 'Highest 2 Lowest' premiered on Tuesday night to a 5.5-minute standing ovation and a surprise honorary Palme d'Or for lead Denzel Washington. It also brought Rihanna to Cannes, who sat in the audience to support her partner A$AP Rocky and walked the red carpet in the rain with him after the film's debut. 'Highest 2 Lowest,' an English-language remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film 'High and Low,' is set in modern day New York and stars Washington as a music mogul tied up in a life-or-death ransom plot. Rocky plays Yung Felon, an aspiring rapper who will stop at nothing to achieve his dream. 'Highest 2 Lowest' also stars Ice Spice (in her film debut), Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, Aubrey Joseph, Michael Potts and Wendell Pierce. The screenplay was penned by William Alan Fox. After premiering at Cannes, 'Highest 2 Lowest' will get a theatrical release starting Aug. 22 via A24 and will stream on Apple TV+ Sept. 5. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spike Lee says ‘people are hurting' in jab at Trump's foreign-made film tariffs
Spike Lee not-so-subtly shaded Donald Trump while speaking at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival ahead of the world premiere of his new film, Highest 2 Lowest. During Monday's press conference, the acclaimed Do the Right Thing director, 68, was asked if social media has negatively impacted American morals. In a clip of the moment shared to social media, Lee replied with an impish grin: 'Well, I don't know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president.' 'My wife said, 'Spike, be very careful what you say!'' he laughed, per Variety. 'But here's the thing, I don't think we can condemn social media. People say the same thing about film or whatever. So I'm not going to demonize the form.' Lee was later asked more directly about Trump's plan to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made films. While Lee admitted that he 'doesn't have the answer for that,' he noted that 'people are definitely hurting.' 'No one's working,' the BlacKkKlansman director said. 'The guy just said he wanted to put a tariff on every film that shot… I don't know how that's going to work.' Trump's push for tariffs on foreign-made films began earlier this month with a Truth Social post, in which he claimed other countries were "offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States' which was, in turn, 'devastating' Hollywood. The president then authorized the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative "to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands." Shortly after that initial Truth Social post, White House officials clarified that 'no final decisions' had been made and that all options were being explored. Trump then spoke out again, stating: "I'm not looking to hurt the industry; I'm looking to help.' It remains unclear if or when said tariffs would take effect. But Lee wasn't the only director to have spoken out against the president's proposed tariffs at this year's film festival. Over the weekend, director Richard Linklater, who was there with his new movie, Nouvelle Vague, defiantly addressed Trump's plans, saying: 'The tariff thing, that's not gonna happen right? That guy changes his mind like 50 times in one day. 'It's the one export industry in the U.S., it would be kind of dumb to… Whatever, we don't have to talk about that.' Wes Anderson also mocked Trump's threats, saying Monday that he'd 'never heard of a 100 percent tariff before.' 'I'm not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he's saying he's going to take all the money. And then what do we get? So it's complicated to me,' he said, quipping: 'Does that mean you can hold up the movie in customs? I feel it doesn't ship that way. I'm not sure I want to know the details so I'll hold off on my official answer.' Meanwhile, Lee's new movie, Highest 2 Lowest, starring his longtime collaborator Denzel Washington and rapper A$AP Rocky, premiered on Monday. The movie, which follows a music mogul who faces a life-and-death moral dilemma when he gets involved in a ransom plot, has already divided critics. The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab called it 'generic,' arguing that it is 'short on emotional depth' in a three-star review. Meanwhile, Roger Ebert's Robert Daniels hailed it as 'an exceptional piece of personal filmmaking that might be Lee's most energetic film since Inside Man.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spike Lee says ‘people are hurting' in jab at Trump's foreign-made film tariffs
Spike Lee not-so-subtly shaded Donald Trump while speaking at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival ahead of the world premiere of his new film, Highest 2 Lowest. During Monday's press conference, the acclaimed Do the Right Thing director, 68, was asked if social media has negatively impacted American morals. In a clip of the moment shared to social media, Lee replied with an impish grin: 'Well, I don't know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president.' 'My wife said, 'Spike, be very careful what you say!'' he laughed, per Variety. 'But here's the thing, I don't think we can condemn social media. People say the same thing about film or whatever. So I'm not going to demonize the form.' Lee was later asked more directly about Trump's plan to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made films. While Lee admitted that he 'doesn't have the answer for that,' he noted that 'people are definitely hurting.' 'No one's working,' the BlacKkKlansman director said. 'The guy just said he wanted to put a tariff on every film that shot… I don't know how that's going to work.' Trump's push for tariffs on foreign-made films began earlier this month with a Truth Social post, in which he claimed other countries were "offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States' which was, in turn, 'devastating' Hollywood. The president then authorized the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative "to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands." Shortly after that initial Truth Social post, White House officials clarified that 'no final decisions' had been made and that all options were being explored. Trump then spoke out again, stating: "I'm not looking to hurt the industry; I'm looking to help.' It remains unclear if or when said tariffs would take effect. Spike Lee shades Donald Trump in #Cannes: "I don't know how much we can talk about American values considering who is President... My wife said, 'Spike, be very careful what you say!'" — Variety (@Variety) May 20, 2025 But Lee wasn't the only director to have spoken out against the president's proposed tariffs at this year's film festival. Over the weekend, director Richard Linklater, who was there with his new movie, Nouvelle Vague, defiantly addressed Trump's plans, saying: 'The tariff thing, that's not gonna happen right? That guy changes his mind like 50 times in one day. 'It's the one export industry in the U.S., it would be kind of dumb to… Whatever, we don't have to talk about that.' Wes Anderson also mocked Trump's threats, saying Monday that he'd 'never heard of a 100 percent tariff before.' 'I'm not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he's saying he's going to take all the money. And then what do we get? So it's complicated to me,' he said, quipping: 'Does that mean you can hold up the movie in customs? I feel it doesn't ship that way. I'm not sure I want to know the details so I'll hold off on my official answer.' Meanwhile, Lee's new movie, Highest 2 Lowest, starring his longtime collaborator Denzel Washington and rapper A$AP Rocky, premiered on Monday. The movie, which follows a music mogul who faces a life-and-death moral dilemma when he gets involved in a ransom plot, has already divided critics. The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab called it 'generic,' arguing that it is 'short on emotional depth' in a three-star review. Meanwhile, Roger Ebert's Robert Daniels hailed it as 'an exceptional piece of personal filmmaking that might be Lee's most energetic film since Inside Man.'
