Highest 2 Lowest Review

Icons are what you make of them. That point is hammered home by Highest 2 Lowest, the latest Spike Lee-directed feature. He and Denzel Washington are a definite, strong double to tackle the themes of the Akira Kurosawa classic, High and Low. A masterpiece of a film where the moral quandary of individualism and isolationism exists. Highest 2 Lowest adapts those feelings, those ideas, extremely well. Clunky in spots, but the spirit which beats throughout is inevitable. When you pair Washington with Jeffrey Wright, with Ilfenesh Hadera, with Lee, you are bound to a solid feature film. Their skills in front of and behind the camera are well-documented, and Highest 2 Lowest applies them well in a film with as much interest in the core of High and Low as the tackling of the music industry. Slivers of wisdom cut through and eventually overwhelm the Kurosawa original. That is the sign of a strong reimagining.  

Lee has been in this position before. Nobody wants to remember his Oldboy, but it is worth considering how that, and Highest 2 Lowest, meditate on what we hold dear to our hearts. His directing tone is never quite thrilling enough to convince of the Kurosawa plot, nor is it light enough to make the more endearing, exhilarating latter half stick, but it comes together, nonetheless. For all those little pitfalls in plot detail and dramatics, there is a sincerity at play. A turning point scene where to trust your gut over the process, an inevitability of any drama, is turned into a jab at generative artificial intelligence, which is what we stick with Lee through rough waters for. His commentaries are still lethal, be it on the dumbing down of the arts for the sake of corporate sponsors or the narrow vision we have when an idea embeds itself in our heads. Those feelings can be life or death, and they are for Highest 2 Lowest.  

Convincing work from Washington, Hadera, and Wright is crucial to that. They’re a trio to be reckoned with and, particularly in that first third where the police are tracing those kidnapper calls, rooting around for what information they can, they shine. Washington convinces the audience very quickly of the vision David King, the record-producing prodigy turned risk-chasing company man, has for his future. It’s a premise in his mind worth sacrificing those closest to him, and that is the crux of Highest 2 Lowest. How far will one person go to make their money, to cement their legacy? As much is harder in the modern world, which Lee is keen to comment on but never makes the focus. It works well. A tough balance to crack, but maintained as he contemplates cancel culture, streaming platforms and how far we will go to contact icons.  

Part of why we try and get in touch with those who mean the most to our creative output is to prove to ourselves, not to them, that we have succeeded. Clunky as it is, Highest 2 Lowest is an honest piece of work. Whenever Washington, Wright, or ASAP Rocky are on screen, the energy and themes flow. There are breaks in between for an audience to contemplate what they hear, and more than a few moments which either don’t land or feel inevitably strange. A film following a music prodigy and the chance to make something more of yourself, being soundtracked with pieces King would himself pass on, is a tad ironic and does much to disrupt the mood. But when Highest 2 Lowest gets going, when it puts itself in the shoes of those with something to prove, no matter their experience, it shines. A shame it happens so little, but it’s a fun ride with an all-star cast.