It’s good to know {that a} Spike Lee Joint nonetheless means one thing in immediately’s age of straight-to-streaming phenoms and blockbuster franchises. The Brooklyn-raised filmmaker can nonetheless seize audiences with something bearing his title, even when he’s reimagining works past his usually unique filmography.
For greater than three a long time, Lee has dazzled and revolutionized the film world along with his iconic, out-of-the-box concepts rooted within the complexities of race, class, id, politics, and, most of all, private reckonings. The latter is particularly true of his newest characteristic, “Highest 2 Lowest,” a recent reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping thriller “High and Low,” now set in opposition to the backdrop of the music business and its inherent perils.
It’s not typically that we see Lee dip into remake territory. Nonetheless, his longtime love for Kurosawa’s work and an opportunity to reunite with Denzel Washington — whom he’s collaborated with 5 occasions on 1990’s “Mo’ Better Blues,” 1992’s “Malcolm X,” 1998’s “He Got Game,” and 2006’s “Inside Man”— offered a problem he seemingly couldn’t refuse. Let’s put an emphasis on problem.
With a screenplay helmed by Alan Fox, Lee had his work reduce out for him, updating a black-and-white noir traditional to a present-day, New York Metropolis-centric thrill trip, though the thrills don’t fairly arrive till the movie’s riveting closing act. Earlier than that, although, Lee takes some inventive detours that instantly give his reinterpretation an id of its personal, or relatively, his id.
That a lot is obvious because the movie’s opening photographs glide across the director’s stomping grounds of Brooklyn and Manhattan as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” — one in every of Lee’s late mom’s favourite musicals — blares within the background, displaying off NYC as solely Lee sees it. The wealthy partitions of an expensive Dumbo penthouse are adorned with Knicks merch, and posters and work by and of distinguished Black artists (some from Lee’s private assortment), befitting an abode for a millionaire music mogul who has “the best ears in the business.”
At one level, we catch delicate homages to Lee’s legacy, with transient cameos from “Do the Right Thing” star Rosie Perez and “She’s Gotta Have It” actor Anthony Ramos (who reprised Lee’s function from his 1986 directorial debut). These nods unfold because the movie’s protagonist displays on his personal legacy — and, extra pointedly, what he’s prepared to sacrifice for it.
Little question, “Highest 2 Lowest” is an unmistakable Spike Lee Joint. And whereas the movie outwardly bears all of the hallmarks of the director’s signature model, it additionally gives a deeper look into what personally resonates with him nowadays, given his option to reinterpret this particular Kurosawa movie centered on ethical battle. In Lee’s fingers, the story turns into much more of a meditation on the results of success and the tough decisions one makes when stated success is threatened.
That quandary lies on the coronary heart of “Highest 2 Lowest,” although, to Lee’s credit score (and detriment), the movie takes its time getting there. A lot of the primary half is dedicated to a drawn-out ransom plot that’s far much less attention-grabbing than the repercussions that comply with. Whereas the movie finally finds its footing, the primary two acts are a tedious watch. The pacing is sluggish, the boisterous rating clashes with the subdued motion on display, and, in some scenes, the dialogue feels redundant — particularly when all you’re actually ready for is the most effective a part of the film: Washington’s eventual showdown along with his adversary, Yung Felon, a vengeful aspiring rapper performed electrically by A$AP Rocky.
Nonetheless, as soon as issues lastly get going, “Highest 2 Lowest” is kind of a marvel.
It begins with David King (Washington), the famend CEO of Stackin’ Hits Data, who’s spent the higher a part of twenty years minting chart-topping artists and snatching up Grammys to construct up his music empire. When a proposed merger threatens to undermine his storied success, King David units his sights on shopping for again his firm, utilizing each asset he has to safe the crown jewel for himself, his spouse Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and their teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). However, in fact, bother comes knocking, and on the worst potential time.
A mysterious wrongdoer calls to tell David that he’s kidnapped his son and needs $17.5 million for his return. However there’s been a mix-up. As an alternative of Trey, his finest good friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of David’s driver and childhood good friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright), is the hostage in query. (Sure, Elijah Wright is the real-life son of Emmy winner Jeffrey Wright). However the kidnapper’s provide nonetheless stands: David both pays Kyle’s ransom, or he’ll have blood on his fingers.
That is the place Lee is most trustworthy to Kurosawa’s imaginative and prescient, placing David between a rock and a tough place as he decides if his fortune and future are extra essential than saving a life, the lifetime of his good friend’s son, no much less. As monotonous as this a part of the movie is, it builds up simply sufficient for Lee to shift his film into excessive gear with a pulsating sequence that reminds you why the filmmaker is such a whiz behind the digital camera.
The catalyst for that’s David, who steps onto a crowded 4 practice clutching a bag of Swiss francs for the ransom trade earlier than it goes utterly haywire. The town buzzes round him on what feels just like the busiest day in New York, with rowdy baseball followers en path to Yankee Stadium to jeer the Pink Sox, and the full of life Puerto Rican Day Parade — that includes the legendary Eddie Palmieri and his salsa orchestra — in full swing. The vitality is so intense that Lee makes you’re feeling such as you’re proper within the middle of the motion in the easiest way.
It’s organized chaos at its most interesting, and such an exciting change of tempo because the scene erupts right into a dizzying bike chase that lastly results in Kyle’s whereabouts. Nonetheless, there’s the thriller of his kidnapper’s id, which David is set to resolve.
The police, who’re closely suspicious of Paul on account of his checkered previous (for causes we by no means fairly study), dismiss assist from David in monitoring down the perpetrator, even after a hospitalized Kyle provides them a clue — an earworm observe by Yung Felon (carried out by Rocky on the movie’s soundtrack) that he heard the rapper engaged on whereas held hostage, which David finally discovers. It’s a pleasant callback to the music titan’s skilled ears and a intelligent reminder that music itself is a storytelling component within the film.
A main instance of that could be a needle drop from James Brown’s “The Payback” that cues up probably the most scrumptious face-off between David and Yung Felon within the movie’s closing stretch, the place Rocky someway provides Washington a run for his cash (a worthy follow-up efficiency after starring in 2018’s “Monster”).
What occurs subsequent — David and Yung Felon going bar-for-bar in a spontaneous rap battle that turns right into a cathartic remedy session — culminates in a mind-blowing reveal that, whereas I gained’t spoil it, lastly is sensible of how and why these two grew to become surprising foes.
It’s price noting that “Highest 2 Lowest” gives revelations past the central rivalry, notably in the case of immediately’s fast-changing leisure business, which Lee argues now operates inside an consideration economic system formed, and sometimes distorted, by the web. There are additionally private reflections concerning the toll of prioritizing fame and cash over the passions that drive us.
These themes, baked in Lee’s perspective of Black tradition, really feel particularly well timed immediately when a lot of the world feels disconnected from what as soon as was. In true Lee vogue, his movie leaves you lots to sit down with.
By its finish, “Highest 2 Lowest” provides you exactly what you’d need from a Spike Lee Joint, after which some. As a lot because the movie demonstrates how deeply reverent the filmmaker is, paying homage to those that have impressed him, it additionally reaffirms that, at 68 years previous, Lee nonetheless has a pointy eye on the current in addition to the long run.
That concept is pushed house within the movie’s closing moments, when singer Aiyana-Lee — found by David for his new label and, in actual life, by Lee — delivers a soulful efficiency of the title observe. As David embraces his subsequent period, it appears like Lee is doing the identical, letting this specific message carry his legacy ahead.
In some ways, that additionally aligns with the place Lee and Washington are at this level of their careers, letting this new work communicate for his or her legacies. If this does change into their fifth and closing collaboration, it’s a becoming finale to a legendary partnership.
Collectively, they’re the principle attraction of “Highest 2 Lowest,” which is simply getting a two-week theatrical window earlier than heading to streaming. It’s price seeing a movie of this magnitude, so stuffed with star energy and weighty concepts, on the massive display in case you can assist it. That’s the easiest way to soak up Lee’s newest introspection — up shut and private.
“Highest 2 Lowest” is now enjoying in theaters. You may stream the movie on Apple TV+ starting on Sept. 5.
