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‘Highest 2 Lowest’ is Denzel Washington at his best
Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest" features a vintage performance from Denzel Washington as a music mogul facing an unimaginable choice.
At 68 and 70 years old, respectively, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have grown from brash young talents into Hollywood’s elder statesmen before our very eyes. Both men have accomplished enough in their careers that making a few crowd-pleasing movies that play to their strengths in their twilight years could be forgiven, and perhaps even welcomed. But with “Highest 2 Lowest,” their fifth collaboration as director and star, Spike and Denzel continue to push the envelope and bring out the best in each other.
The film — a remake of legendary director Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller “High and Low” — begins with a sweeping shot that ascends from the Brooklyn Bridge up to a luxury penthouse atop the Olympia building in Dumbo, where record executive David King (Washington) is on the phone, making deals. King has a beautiful wife (Ilfenesh Hadera), a budding basketball star of a son named Trey (Aubrey Joseph), and an apartment that’s the envy of all who visit.
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All of that casual excellence is threatened when kidnappers target Trey for ransom, setting the price at $17.5 million in Swiss francs. What seems like an obvious choice for King (pay the ransom) is complicated when it turns out that the kidnappers accidentally snatched Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of King’s chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), instead of Trey.
In Kurosawa’s original, the dilemma facing Toshiro Mifune’s (“Seven Samurai”) shoe executive focuses much more on the class divide, and whether his chauffeur’s son is worth the same as his own. There’s elements of that here – particularly in how the police in charge of the investigation treat Paul, an ex-con – but King’s hesitance to pay the ransom is more personal.
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King has just struck a deal to buy back controlling interest of his own record label in the face of an acquisition from a faceless conglomerate. It’s his life’s work, and despite reaching retirement age, he can’t stand the idea of a soulless corporation selling off his back catalog for use in insurance commercials.
There’s also the fact that the faceless kidnapper delights in taking shots at King’s manhood with every phone call. King’s story (and indeed, his appearance) appears to be modeled after Jay Z, a mogul who built his empire brick by brick from Brooklyn’s Marcy Street projects to the boardroom. With Washington deploying the unparalleled swagger he brings to every role, you can see why King can’t accept a faceless adversary disrespecting him.
Up to this point, “Highest 2 Lowest” requires a bit of patience as King haggles over Kyle’s future. But the film kicks into high gear as King and the police begin to put a plan into motion. Lee stages some of his best action scenes since “Inside Man” (another Washington collaboration), using a Bronx-bound train and a Puerto Rican street festival as playgrounds for his vision.
As the film progresses, we also meet some truly stellar supporting cast members. Rapper A$AP Rocky, playing an up-and-coming artist named Young Felon, gives a particularly strong performance. His scenes with Washington crackle with an uncomfortable intensity, and are among the film’s highlights.
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If the film can be said to have a weakness, it’s Lee’s occasional overindulgences. There are numerous dubious stylistic choices, including multiple quick double takes (i.e. two consecutive shots of the same characters slapping hands) and hard cuts. Howard Drossin’s swelling orchestral score, which is omnipresent in the first half of the film, almost drowns out the dialogue at times. (Lee also delights in having his characters make fun of Boston, though I found that particular affectation hilarious rather than irksome.)
There are also moments in the script that veer dangerously close to “get off my lawn” territory. King is constantly telling Trey to get off his phone, and despite being a record executive, his tastes in music seem to have stagnated sometime around the turn of the century. The film also features multiple hectoring lectures about the corrosive power of social media, which has made attention the only true currency.
Subtlety has never been Lee’s style, and he’s earned the right to criticize younger generations as he so chooses. But the fourth or fifth time we’re told something to the effect of, “The real villain of the movie isn’t Kyle’s kidnapper, it’s society,” it starts feeling a little goofy.
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Those are minor quibbles, especially since they are exactly the kind of bold choices Lee has been making his whole career. What you get with “Highest 2 Lowest” is exactly what you would expect from a Spike Lee joint: A bold, entertaining movie that couldn’t be made by anyone but him. With the added bonus of Denzel Washington continuing to bring his A-game, it’s worth seeing “Highest 2 Lowest” in theaters during its brief two-week run before it migrates to Apple TV+.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
“Highest 2 Lowest” is in theaters now.
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