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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In ‘Highest 2 Lowest,' Spike Lee swings between tonal extremes, not always effectively
From the opening moments of 'Highest 2 Lowest,' Spike Lee's remix-as-remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller 'High and Low,' you should know that the filmmaker is here primarily for a good time and he's asking us to play along. Over aerial shots of the sun hitting the New York City skyline, including the stunning Olympia building looming over Brooklyn, Lee layers 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin',' the opening song from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical 'Oklahoma!,' a jarring, cheeky choice that jolts us out of what we might think a Spike Lee Kurosawa remake is supposed to be. The Japanese auteur has long been a major influence on Lee, and when the script for 'Highest 2 Lowest' (by Alan Fox), which had been in development with other filmmakers, came his way, Lee made it his own. He also cast longtime collaborator Denzel Washington, an apt pairing. Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune; Lee has Washington. (It's their fifth film together.) This all sounds great on paper, but what ends up on screen is a confusingly mixed bag. Kurosawa's 'High and Low' was based on the 1959 Ed McBain cop novel 'King's Ransom,' about a moral dilemma that becomes an identity crisis for a wealthy man. Transporting the action to Japan's post-World War II economic boom, Kurosawa examined class differences in the country. Though Lee uses the text to comment on the haves and have-nots too, his focus is trained on the 21st century attention economy dictated by the social media hordes. When we pick up with David King (Washington) on the balcony of his Olympia penthouse, he knows that a change is going to come this beautiful morning. A superstar music mogul, King is aware that his company, Stackin' Hits, is about to be sold out from under him. Secretly, he's set a plan in motion to orchestrate a leveraged buyout and take control of the sale. But when he receives a call that his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been snatched off the street and the kidnappers are demanding $17.5 million, his scheme to save his company goes up in smoke. But then, Trey shows up. As it happens, the kidnappers have mistakenly taken his son's best friend, Kyle (Elijah Wright), the child of David's longtime confidant and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), a devout Muslim rich in street smarts but not money. David's personal relief is cut short when he has to decide if he's going to pay the ransom and save his best friend's kid — and his face, considering the media scrutiny — or follow his dream and save his company. 'Highest 2 Lowest' mimics the high and low bisection of Kurosawa's film, with the first hour set in the moneyed confines of the Kings' luxe apartment, laden with priceless African American contemporary art. As cinematographer Matthew Libatique's camera lingers over the Basquiat and Kehinde Wiley paintings, one might wonder why he doesn't just sell a few to remedy his money problems. The first hour of 'Highest 2 Lowest' is more baffling than anything else. The fluid long-take cinematography by Libatique is impeccable, but with a melodramatic tone courtesy of a distracting, over-the-top score by Howard Drossin and weak performances from the supporting cast, it feels more like a Tyler Perry movie than a Spike Lee joint. But then, liberation: The film hits the streets and Lee unfolds an absolutely sublime piece of kinetic New York City filmmaking, a chase scene with a subway car full of Yankees fans chanting their anti-Boston sentiments intercut with a Puerto Rican Day Parade performance by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. Finally, we're cooking with gas. It's one of the best sequences of the year. David and Paul take matters into their own hands while searching for Kyle's kidnapper, who turns out to be an aspiring rapper named Yung Felon (an excellent ASAP Rocky). Washington and Rocky face off in two electric scenes in the back half of the movie, both times separated by glass: a recording booth and a jail visitation. Rocky capably steps up to Washington's loose but intense actorly flow and contributes a great song to the soundtrack too. Washington is unsurprisingly mesmerizing, improvising small gestures and throwaway lines. But there's still an element of camp and goofy humor that lingers, taking away from the script's leaner, meaner elements. Generously, one might interpret this as a Brechtian nod toward the film's artifice as an arch and knowing remake laden with references. But that keeps us at a distance from the emotional reality of these characters. When Lee brings everything home with a message about creating real art from the heart and the responsibility of stewarding Black culture, it's a bit too late to take it seriously. 'Highest 2 Lowest' has its highs and lows, and when the highs are high, it soars. Those pesky lows are certainly hard to shake though. Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
USA Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Highest 2 Lowest' movie review: Spike Lee, Denzel Washington are still a hit duo
Hearing the strains of 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' ' as Denzel Washington's music mogul steps out from his New York City penthouse, you know there's only one way his day's going to go in Spike Lee's new crime thriller, 'Highest 2 Lowest.' Professional uncertainty and a massive moral dilemma take Washington's character on a quest through the streets of Lee's beloved Big Apple in this absorbing reimagining (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Aug. 15 and streaming on Apple TV+ Sept. 5) of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 drama 'High and Low.' And although they haven't collaborated in a while, this teaming of old friends Lee and Washington soars once it gets cooking. David King (Washington) is famous for having 'the best ears' in the music business – even his Beats are golden – but after decades of discovering chart-topping artists with his Stackin' Hits label, the industry has bypassed him as AI and social media have trumped the music itself. With a lucrative merger deal on the table, King decides to instead buy back his company, keep it in the family, and one day hand it down to son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). As King and his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), figure out the financial logistics, he learns that his kid has vanished from a college basketball camp and gets a ransom call from a stranger: $17.5 million or he never sees Trey again. In a twist, the kidnappers mistakenly snatch Trey's buddy Kyle (Elijah Wright) – the son of King's driver and childhood friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright) – but the deal for Kyle's life remains. Cops get involved, bristling worried dad Paul, and a street-level narrative unfolds that takes the story from a Puerto Rican Day parade and Yankee Stadium to darker corners of the city as King weighs how much he'll do to save Kyle versus save his label. Alan Fox's screenplay revamps Kurosawa's original script (itself adapted from Ed McBain's novel 'King's Ransom"), and Lee crafts a film that explores things he loves: music, history and sports. In that way, it feels very much like a signature 'Spike Lee Joint.' The pacing is uneven at times, in the more melodramatic beginning and as the police get increasingly involved in the kidnapping, yet there are scenes when it's best to just buckle up for the ride. One exquisitely crafted sequence with shades of 1970s white-knuckle affairs like 'The French Connection' involves King, a Jordan book bag chock-full of Swiss francs, mysterious figures on motorbikes, and a subway train rocking with crazed Yankee fans. Lee has long had a love for Kurosawa – the Japanese master's 'Rashomon' was an inspiration behind the famed Brooklynite's 'She's Gotta Have It' – and does him justice. 'Highest 2 Lowest' is a better outing than recent Lee remakes like the middling 'Oldboy' and 'Da Sweet Blood of Jesus,' and the latest in a streak of movies ('Chi-Raq,' 'BlacKkKlansman' and 'Da Five Bloods') that continues to cement Lee's status as an essential Hollywood voice. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the fifth time in 'Highest 2 Lowest' 'Highest' also marks the fifth collaboration between Lee and Washington and the first since 2006's 'Inside Man.' A couple of those – 'He Got Game' and 'Malcolm X' – find Washington leading some of the director's finest works, and with this new film, Lee brings an almost 'Training Day'-esque intensity out of Washington alongside an artistic, grounded soul. Washington and the movie mostly find their mojo in the latter half as key scenes with Paul reveal King as a man more than mogul, and Washington shares a blistering series of moments with A$AP Rocky, who plays up-and-coming rapper Yung Felon with youthful rage. It's a fascinating meeting of new and old school, a very personal rap battle between two guys who see the game differently, that also feels like Lee having his own conversation as an iconoclast in a changing entertainment space. Ice Spice gets her first notable film role and British R&B singer Aiyana-Lee has a bit of a starmaking turn, and Elijah Wright, the son of Oscar-nominated dad Jeffrey, also proves a breakout talent. While 'Highest 2 Lowest' makes for an intensely watchable reunion of a couple of icons, Lee makes sure to do right by the kids, too.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
With ‘Highest 2 Lowest,' Spike Lee updates a neo-noir classic
The respect Lee has for the legendary Japanese director is evident in the ways he reimagines the classic scenes from 'High and Low.' Additionally, like Lee's movies, Kurosawa's films often interrogated the gulf between the haves and have-nots, treating the latter with grace and understanding. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Lee's tough yet undying love for the Big Apple puts him in the esteemed company of the greatest gritty New York City directors, Advertisement The opening credits are an awesome aerial depiction of Manhattan's east side, with the Brooklyn Bridge prominently featured as a majestic entry point (or a divine exit strategy, depending on your perspective). Lee underscores this sequence with an unexpected choice on the soundtrack, 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin',' the opening song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, 'Oklahoma.' Advertisement The song's first lyric indicates that we're going to get a more playful Lee than usual — the guy who enjoys ribbing people about everything. This movie is full of in-jokes and clever asides. 'There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,' sings ' But the song reminds us that 'Oklahoma' is also another tale of the haves and have-nots. Even the view itself raises questions. Whose eyes are we looking through? A rich man who sees the city as conquest, or a poor man who sees it as unattainable without criminal means? Denzel Washington in 'Highest 2 Lowest.' David Lee/Apple Lee provides an initial, but not final, answer. Libatique's camera finds record mogul, David King (Washington), standing on his Brooklyn high-rise patio. 'It's a beautiful morning,' he says to no one in particular as he briefly surveys the landscape. King is the head of the Stackin' Hits record label, a man rumored to have the best ears in the business when it comes to choosing talent. He's a more benevolent version of Terrence Howard's Lucious Lyon from the old Fox TV show, 'Empire,' older and wiser than that memorable hothead, but presumably from the same streets. In other words, a former have-not. Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright) is King's chauffeur and unofficial right-hand man. He's the kind of ride or die you earn in the streets, a man whose intimidating stature hides a gentler nature. Christopher is a practicing Muslim, a detail that makes sense if you know the origins of the character. In Kurosawa's film, he is a very penitent man, expressing regret and deference to his boss. 'Highest 2 Lowest' changes the recipient of Christopher's penitence to a much higher power. Advertisement Christopher's kid, Kyle (Elijah Wright — Jeffrey's son) is besties with King's son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph). They're inseparable teenagers, attending a basketball camp run by former Boston Celtic Rick Fox, playing himself. King teases Trey about his love for the residents of TD Garden, snatching the green headband from his son's head and threatening to disown him for dissing the Knicks. It's the first of many amusing swipes the world's most famous New York Knicks fan will take at Boston teams. Screenwriter Alan Fox seamlessly updates the material in ways that will please fans of 'High and Low.' He also keeps the basic plot intact: A wealthy executive (played in the original by That is, until he realizes that his son isn't the one being held for ransom. Through a case of mistaken identity, the kidnapper swiped his chauffeur's son. As in 'High and Low,' King is convinced to pay the ransom by his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera). That film's somewhat useless cops are also transferred to this plot; here, they're led by LaChanze and Dean Winters. Winters brings as much mayhem to the proceedings as he does in those Allstate ads. Advertisement A$AP Rocky in 'Highest 2 Lowest.' David Lee/Apple The kidnapper, Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky), forces King to deliver the money on a 4 train barreling up to Yankees Stadium. This gives Lee the chance to stage the original's train money drop. Editors Barry Alexander Brown (a Lee regular) and Allyson C. Johnson craft a virtuoso multi-vehicle action sequence that involves motorcycles, rowdy Yankees fans chanting obscenities about Boston, and an enormous group of people at a Puerto Rican Day parade. The hectic, exciting scene includes a performance by the famous salsa bandleader, Eddie Palmieri, whose death last week at 88 adds an extra layer of poignancy to his appearance. 'Highest 2 Lowest' gives Washington another meaty role to sink his teeth into, and Lee allows him free reign to bring all his Denzel-isms. Scenes with Rocky are framed with the two on opposite sides of the screen, a visual reminder of the divide between the two characters. Plus, if you ever wanted to see Denzel in a rap battle, this movie has you covered. Wright is just as good as Washington. He brings a quiet desperation to Paul, made more powerful by the way he anchors it to his faith. I wish he had more scenes, but what's here is commendable. The actors have a rapport that makes you believe in their bond. If there's a weak link, albeit a minor one, it's Rocky. He's fine, but his character is underwritten. This was also the case in 'High and Low,' but it's a bigger issue here because Lee ups the importance of the character's motivations. By rooting them in the world of rap, the film becomes a pointed commentary on the way impoverished Black and brown people see music as one of the few paths to prosperity. I longed for a deeper dive into these ideas. Advertisement Rocky does get a catchy number to perform, which will satisfy his fans. There's also a spectacular, Oscar-worthy theme song sung onscreen by Aiyana-Lee that proves, yet again, that all Spike Lee movies are musicals under the skin. This is one of the year's best films. It's also one of Lee's finest joints. ★★★★ HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Directed by Spike Lee. Written by Alan Fox. Based on Akira Kurosawa's film, 'High and Low' and Ed McBain's novel, 'King's Ransom.' Starring Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, LaChanze, Dean Winters, Aubrey Joseph, Elijah Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Rick Fox. At Coolidge Corner, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport. 133 min. R (salty language, pervasive love of the New York Yankees — whoo hoo!) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Highest 2 Lowest' Review: Spike Lee's Kurosawa-Inspired Kidnapping Drama Isn't So Much a Remake as a Manifesto
There's enormous risk in remaking a movie like 'High and Low.' Japanese master Akira Kurosawa set the bar high with his 1963 take on a kidnapping that brings an ambitious businessman to his knees — which means, even in the hands of such a visionary director as Spike Lee, you can't help worrying how low a modern, New York-set update might go. For three-quarters of its running time, Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest' glides along far better than skeptics might have expected (it's night and day with his sordid U.S. adaptation of 'Old Boy'). And then comes a scene for which there is no equivalent in Kurosawa's version — a face-off between Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky as the man with the nerve to ransom his son — and the movie rockets into a sublime new stratosphere, delivering an electrifying last act that's at once original and deeply personal. More from Variety 'Splitsville' Review: Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona Play the Field in an Exhausting Knockabout Romcom 'The Crime of Father Amaro' Exec Producer Laura Imperiale Boards Dominican-Set 'Black Sheep, White Sheep' by 'Made in Bangkok' Helmer Flavio Florencio (EXCLUSIVE) Denzel Washington Gets Surprise Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes During Spike Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest' Premiere In the end, Lee has taken 'High and Low' to new highs, delivering a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while also sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed. Ultimately destined to stream on Apple TV+, the big-screen-worthy project should perform well when A24 releases it in theaters on Aug. 22, three months after premiering out of competition at Cannes. As the film opens, blaring 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'' over beauty shots of the Big Apple (treating the 'Oklahoma!' hit as a New York-signifying show tune), hip-hop mogul David King is on top of the world. From the balcony of his penthouse apartment — in Brooklyn's awe-inspiring Olympia Dumbo building, no less — Washington's character is poised to acquire a majority stake in Stackin' Hits, the record label he co-founded more than two decades earlier. David has two things to show for all his years in the music business. There's Stackin' Hits, of course, but even more important is his family: wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and teenage son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), whose ear for fresh talent just might carry the label through the turbulent challenges the industry is facing. At this moment, just as David cashed in his portfolio and took out second mortgages on his two homes — all with the intention of seizing control of the company he helped to create — he receives a call from someone who claims to have abducted Trey. This direct threat to the King family puts his plans on pause, but it's just the first of several twists (unchanged from the original) that force David to decide whether he'll pay the ransom: 17.5 million Swiss francs. In a new wrinkle, public perception (as in, how the situation looks on social media) plays a significant role in his decision. No one wants to be seen as the guy who bought a company with the same fortune that could have saved an innocent teenager's life. The three NYPD detectives (Dean Winters, LaChanze and John Douglas Thompson) insist they'll be able to retrieve the money, but the kidnapper is smarter than they think, insisting that David bring the loot by subway, then making it disappear amid a busy Puerto Rican Day Parade in the South Bronx. Pumped full of life by pianist Eddie Palmieri's street performance, it's 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.' Lee has been establishing a lot more than just exposition in the lead-up to this moment, but from here on, the movie has us by the collar, propelled by a dramatic force that reminds what a gifted filmmaker he can be when everything's firing in the same direction. As in Kurosawa's version (loosely adapted from the novel 'King's Ransom' by Ed McBain), a serious miscalculation by the kidnapper drags David's oldest and closest friend, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), into the mix. Screenwriter Alan Fox strengthens the bond between these two men while also making a point about how the police officers treat them differently. David is one of the city's most successful Black entrepreneurs, and as such, he's afforded special respect and cooperation. Paul, on the other hand, has a criminal record and is viewed as a suspect at first. Later, when the tables turn, the police seem far less willing to help him than they did David. But Paul's not without his own support network, putting out calls to 'the streets' that yield essential clues in the investigation. You could hardly ask for two better actors than Washington and Wright in these roles, with the reunion between Washington and Lee (their fifth collaboration) allowing them to build on their own decades-long artistic legacies. Here, we find the 'Malcolm X' star playing a man called King, while doctored portraits of a young Denzel hang all around the man's office. Meanwhile, King's home is a temple to Black excellence, art-directed like a Pedro Almodóvar movie (its colored walls adorned with paintings and artifacts from Lee's personal collection), in a way that collapses the distance between the filmmaker and his fictional protagonist. In theory, paying the ransom comes at the direct expense of David's big plans for the music biz, and as such, it forces him to put all of his priorities into perspective. For the remake's all-new climax, looking every bit the Equalizer (while dubbing himself 'the Chance-Giver'), Washington throws down in a spontaneous rap battle with A$AP Rocky in a moment that shows why this man's the king. As David reclaims what he loves, we can hear Lee's own passions: as a teacher of film, speaker of truths and elder statesman to the community. They boil over in the last half-hour — in the rousing musical performance that gives the film its name and in a coda that reveals Lee's artistic conscience, answering why he dared to touch such a sacred object as Kurosawa's masterpiece. For starters, New York is practically another planet, compared to 1960s Tokyo, and this project allows Lee to celebrate what the city means to him today. As David puts it, 'You either build or destroy in this world.' Done wrong, remaking 'High and Low' might have diminished the original, but in this case, Lee clearly has something vital to add. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Highest 2 Lowest' Review: Spike Lee Returns with a Jarringly Fun and Upbeat Riff on One of Akira Kurosawa's Bleakest Films
Titled like a sequel, plotted like a remake, and shot with enough of its own singular verve to ensure that most people never think of it as either of those things, Spike Lee's deliriously entertaining — if jarringly upbeat — 'Highest 2 Lowest' modernizes the post-war anxieties of Akira Kurosawa's 'High and Low' for the age of parasocial relationships. Formerly a hyper-capitalistic shoe magnate embodied by the wolfish Toshiro Mifune, Kingo Gondo has been reborn as record executive David King (Denzel Washington, in what might be his most towering screen performance since 'Training Day'). Likewise, the glass mansion his progenitor owned atop the hills of Yokohama has been swapped out for a penthouse apartment at the Olympia building in Dumbo — soon to become a minor tourist attraction if this refreshing late summer treat is seen widely enough during the two-week theatrical run that will precede its disappearance into the annals of Apple TV+. More from IndieWire Kate Mara on Treating 'Friendship' Like a 'Dramatic' Indie and the Surprisingly 'Weird' Connection to Werner Herzog 'Renoir' Review: An 11-Year-Old Girl Ponders the Mysteries of the Universe in Chie Hayakawa's Extremely Low-Key Coming-of-Age Drama Beyond that, however, the basic chords of the song remain the same as they were back in 1963, even if Lee includes a bit more screaming directly into the camera about how much Boston's sports teams suck than I remember there being in Kurosawa's take. Once again, our protagonist is forced into a compromising position on the eve of a critical business deal when a downtrodden kidnapper mistakes his driver's son for his own kid, Trey (Aubrey Joseph). And once again, all the money in the world can't save him from paying a price for his greed. The world is a very different place than it was 60 years ago, but some things never change; when people lose hope, they still turn against the people who gave it to them. Only now, the cash-strapped kidnapper doesn't have to physically look up at the rich man's castle in order to be taunted by his fortune (although Lee makes sure to include a scene where the criminal does that anyway). In the version of the story that screenwriter William Alan Fox has reworked for 2025, the bad guy may not be able to spy his idol and nemesis from his own apartment in Forest Hills, but he feels like David is personally mocking him every time he looks at his phone. Even at a time of immense economic stratification, technology has the power to make people's dream lives seem close enough to reach out and grab for themselves, and that closeness is especially palpable for a young Black rapper (A$AP Rocky, just as good here as he is in recent Sundance highlight 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You'), who sees so much of himself in the multi-millionaire CEO of Stackin' Hits records. He feels like they know each other already, and that the real crime is that they don't. The truth, however, is that David King — or King David, as he's been crowned by the New York media — is no longer as secure in his throne as he was during the pre-Spotify golden age of 2000s hip-hop. Pushing 70 in a young man's game, the hitmaker with 'the best ears in the business' has been on the brink of irrelevance for the last few years, and his dwindling market share has only led him further astray from his famously impeccable taste. Despite promising his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera, giving beneficent Queen Macbeth) that he'd sell his empire and saunter off into the sunset, David's wounded pride inspires a desperate bid to buy out his partner and recover full ownership of the label, and he'll need every cent he's got in order to pull it off. Needless to say, the best ears in the business may not be able to save David from listening to the worst voices in his head after a kidnapper demands a $17.5 million ransom for the safe return of his chauffeur's son. Only so much can be gained from comparing Lee's movie against the much tenser and more severe Kurosawa masterpiece that inspired it (and was itself based on the Evan Hunter novel 'King's Ransom'), but the relationship between David and his driver is one of the few areas where 'Highest 2 Lowest' clearly comes out on top. If Washington owns every minute of this film, riveting as he grasps for a righteousness that his money can't seem to buy him, Jeffrey Wright's heartsick performance as David's best friend and closest employee is the friction that gives purchase to his character's inner conflict. Paul grew up with David, but life took him in another direction, and he's been living in the King's penthouse ever since he got out of jail. 'It's just fucking money!' Trey might insist, but the financial dependence at the core of his dad's universe is so obvious that all of David's conversations with Paul are silently choked with the fear of acknowledging it, but when David waffles over paying the ransom for Paul's son (a ransom he was more than ready to pay when he thought his own son had been nabbed), the unspoken truth at the center of their friendship begins to rip the two men apart. Such is the price they pay for trying to pretend — as so many people do — that money is somehow able to exist without a moral dimension. The tension between David and Paul keeps 'Highest 2 Lowest' upright even when the movie around it threatens to go slack. Lee doesn't share Kurosawa's patience for long, talky, single-location sequences, and his attempts at Ice Spicing up this relatively low-event movie can be more trouble than they're worth, even if Ice Spice herself is acquitted on all charges for her two seconds of screen time. Hard cuts, double takes, and strange cameos are par for the course with Spike, but those affectations tend to distract from the primacy of this film's performances. Elsewhere, and everywhere, Howard Drossin's wildly intrusive orchestral score smothers every moment in a wall of sound that burrows into your head like hold music and refuses to discriminate between moods. That garishness also seeps into Matthew Libatique's digital cinematography, but there it works to the advantage of this movie's heated sense of panic (not 'Do the Right Thing' or 'Summer of Sam' hot, but sweltering enough to feel David lose his cool). Then again, there isn't exactly a lot to see. While it would be absurd to suggest that Lee's reimagination doesn't have its own vivid sense of place (a famous sequence, now set aboard the 6 train as it travels from Borough Hall to the Bronx, flattens New York City into a unified socioeconomic class of Yankees fans), the film's general disinterest in replicating the verticality of Kurosawa's version takes away from a third act plunge into the kidnapper's environment. But Lee is so much more interesting for what he brings to a project than for what he takes away from it, and 'Highest 2 Lowest' is naturally at its best when it deviates from its source material. The film's wholehearted embrace of Black culture is baked into David's desire to protect Stackin' Hits from buyers who might dilute the brand of its history, but it's also suffused into the various changes that Lee's version makes to the story's third act, which pivots away from the darkness of Japan's post-war heroin epidemic and towards the aspirational aspects of hip-hop. No spoilers, but at a certain point in the movie Denzel Washington is forced to rap for his life. It shouldn't work, and it definitely almost doesn't, but director and star alike commit to the bit with the same intensity that they've always committed to each other, and somehow they make it sing. That's one of several risks Lee takes in service of making 'Highest 2 Lowest' significantly more fun and hopeful than any iteration of this story has ever been before — risks which are all in the service of showcasing, to quote the press notes, 'the transcendent power of music and the loving bonds of a close-knit African American family.' If this story of economic despair and its malcontents doesn't seem like it was ever intended to be a vehicle for those messages, Lee doesn't seem to have gotten the memo, as he eschews the morally ambiguous despair of Kurosawa's ending in favor of a kumbaya for the richest family in town. King David may not be the same bottom-line obsessed despot at the end of this film that he was at the start, and it's hard to swallow the last scene's glib conclusion that a little humility is enough to make everything right. And so Lee's reinterpretation strains to leave us on a high instead of a low, as befits the finale of an update so compellingly eager to flip the script on one of Kurosawa's most cynical films. It is just fucking money, at the end of the day. But then again, what isn't? 'Highest 2 Lowest' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on Friday, August 22, and it will be available to stream on Apple TV starting Friday, September 5. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. 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