'Highest 2 Lowest' Review: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Reunite for a Thrilling, Music-Driven Crime Drama
- Dan Bremner
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
By Dan Bremner - September 2, 2025
The latest collaboration from the legendary duo of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, their first since Inside Man (2006), is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) and an adaptation on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain.
I am yet to see Kurosawa’s original, but Highest 2 Lowest is such a confident reworking that it stands firmly on its own terms. What could have been a hollow prestige exercise instead feels like an intensely personal “Spike Lee Joint” rooted in New York, steeped in Black culture, and elevated by a towering Denzel performance. It’s slightly uneven in places, but when it hits, it’s electric.
The plot unfolds with deliberate pacing. David King (Washington), a hugely successful music mogul, finds his world turned upside down when a kidnapping rocks his empire. What begins as a seemingly straightforward ransom thriller becomes increasingly tangled in questions of morality, conscience, and survival. The dilemma at the heart of the story isn’t just about whether he can save the victim, but what kind of man (and what kind of leader) he wants to be in the process. It’s a story of spiralling pressure, where every decision carries both personal and cultural weight, and the stakes feel as much spiritual as financial.
The film takes its time finding its groove. The first hour, honestly, had me worried, as it's bogged down by an overly sentimental, made-for-TV-sounding score and some awkwardly camp overacting from the supporting cast. But then something fascinating happens. As Denzel’s character David King, a larger-than-life music mogul, rediscovers his connection to music and begins to actually listen again, the film shifts gears. The score transforms, suddenly infused with hip-hop and jazz, pulsing with life, and the film finds its identity. It’s a rare case where a film’s own flaws get woven into its thematic design, and that gamble pays off.
Denzel Washington Dominates the Screen
At the centre is, of course, Denzel. As David King, he radiates authority, charisma, and deep vulnerability. His performance is full of those little pauses and glances that say more than dialogue ever could, and when his anguish boils over, it’s devastating. Jeffrey Wright provides a measured counterbalance, and A$AP Rocky (surprisingly) turns in a charismatic, layered performance that holds its own against these titans. Their interplay fuels the film’s moral tension. Washington’s King is a man caught between wealth, power, and conscience, and you believe every beat of that internal conflict.
Spike Lee’s fingerprints are all over this. From playful wipes and split screens to his signature double-dolly shot (used sparingly, but with force when it lands), the film is alive with personality. The subway money-exchange sequence is pure Lee, anxiety-inducing, visually inventive, and impossibly tense, a reminder that he remains one of cinema’s great thriller directors when he wants to be. Matthew Libatique’s (The Whale, Black Swan) cinematography matches Lee’s energy, contrasting King’s penthouse (all sterile polish and reflective surfaces) with the grainy, lived-in textures of Brooklyn. The visual split between “high” and “low” isn’t subtle, but it doesn’t need to be, it’s strikingly effective and marvellously cinematic, further making this a shame it'll mostly be seen on streaming.
Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Soul Drive the Narrative Forward
What really sets Highest 2 Lowest apart is how Lee reframes Kurosawa’s crime drama through a modern Black lens. This is as much about ransom and moral dilemma as it is about music, identity, and cultural power. Music isn’t just a backdrop here, it’s the soul of the film. Hip-hop, jazz, soul: they run through the veins of the story, grounding King’s personal turmoil in something larger. The soundtrack (A$AP Rocky, Aiyana-Lee, Jensen McRae, and others) isn’t just needle drops, it’s commentary, texture, and propulsion. When the music shifts, so does the film’s emotional current. It's oddly similar to this year's Sinners, which also smartly crafts the power and history of music into narrative.
Lee also integrates montages of Brooklyn streets, murals, performances, and faces that celebrate Black art and culture. They might seem like flourishes, but they deepen the film’s texture, reminding us of the world beyond King’s glass palace. This is a love letter to New York and Black culture, but also a critique: King’s empire embodies the commercialization of Black music, while the streets pulse with its raw authenticity. That tension between the cultural soul and the capitalist machine becomes the moral backbone of the film.
It’s not flawless. At 2 hours 11 minutes, the runtime drags in the first half, and the tonal shift between the clumsy early melodrama and the thrilling second half is jarring. The overcooked acting in the opening act threatens to sink it before it finds its rhythm. But once it does, the film clicks into place with such conviction that the earlier missteps fade into the background. I can really see this growing on me with further watches.
Final Verdict: A Stylish, Thoughtful Spike Lee Joint Worth Watching
Highest 2 Lowest lands as a stylish, thoughtful, and deeply entertaining Spike Lee joint. It’s a crime thriller, yes, but also a cultural statement about power, music, conscience, and the price of success. With Denzel in commanding form, a soundtrack that refuses to be background noise, and a director swinging for the fences, this is far more than a pointless remake, and makes for another winning collaboration from Lee and Washington.
'Highest 2 Lowest' releases in cinemas September 5
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