‘Highest 2 Lowest’ review: Spike Lee reteams with Denzel Washington for ambitious crime thriller

Dir: Spike Lee. US. 2025. 133mins

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the first time in nearly 20 years for Highest 2 Lowest, an ambitious, thought-provoking crime thriller. This reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 picture High And Low sees Washington play an ageing music mogul who must decide whether to risk his fortune to pay a ransom to the kidnappers who abducted the son of his childhood friend. Lee’s ability to capture New York’s messy, electric rhythms remains unsurpassed, and the film’s examination of Black artistry and racial inequality is passionately rendered, although the film’s overall unfocused nature holds it back.

Its barrage of themes and impulses never find harmony

Premiering in a Cannes Out Of Competition slot, the film opens in the US on August 22 before streaming globally on Apple TV+. The fifth pairing of Lee and Washington, who began their onscreen partnership with 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues, will be a considerable draw, and the script’s thriller elements make this arguably the director’s most commercial proposition since their 2006 collaboration, Inside Man.

Washington plays David King, a legendary record-label honcho married to beautiful philanthropist Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and close to their teen son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). Recently, David has rejected selling his long-running company to a buyer he is convinced will de-emphasise Black artists, reversing a policy he considers paramount. But before he can risk leveraging his wealth to regain controlling interest of the board, he gets a call from a mysterious kidnapper (A$AP Rocky), who announces that he’s taken Trey hostage and demands a hefty $17.5 million for his return.

Those who have seen High And Low, which was based on the 1959 Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom, will know what happens next: David and the police quickly realise that it is not Trey who has been abducted but, rather, the teen son of David’s close friend and personal driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright). David faces a moral dilemma once the kidnapper insists that he still pay the ransom to free Kyle (Wright’s own son Elijah).  Should David think about his friend? Or ensure his own family’s financial future?

Kurosawa’s 1963 film expertly balanced domestic drama with a thriller plot but, while Lee doesn’t skimp on the suspense, he seems more invested in a study of this music-biz titan who will confront his own shortcomings during these hostage negotiations. Washington is swaggering as David, who knows that he hasn’t produced a hit album in years but still believes in his ability to spot talent. Highest 2 Lowest’s reach exceeds its grasp in its grandiose conception of this flawed, once-mighty mogul.

Early on, the film hints at how David has lost his way – specifically, he’s become so fixated on the business that the music itself no longer invigorates him. In a sense, this kidnapper (played with petulant rage by Rocky) represents how David’s life may have ended up if he hadn’t been successful. But because David never rarely emerges as a tragic, complicated figure, the poignancy of the two men’s unlikely spiritual connection fails to materialise.

That would-be connection strikes directly at Lee’s larger exploration of the challenges facing Black entrepreneurs and creatives held back by America’s racist power structures. Lee further illustrates those inequalities through David’s relationship with Paul, who served a prison sentence and has relied on his friend ever since to keep him financially afloat. On its surface, Highest 2 Lowest is about a kidnapping, but Lee digs deeper to question the societal inequities that force Black Americans into desperate situations — sometimes involving criminality — in order to survive.

Beyond the shaky character dynamics, the plotting often feels disjointed, despite a terrific action sequence that pays homage to a similarly riveting set piece in Kurosawa’s film. But such moments are squandered in an overstuffed story that unconvincingly also wants to tackle the materialism in the hip-hop world and the scourge of social media. Ultimately, the picture’s energetic swirl comes across as slightly hollow, its barrage of themes and impulses never finding harmony.