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With: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Aubrey Joseph, Elijah Wright, ASAP Rocky, Ice Spice, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, Rick Fox, Allison Worrell, Jensen McRae, Princess Nokia, Eddie Palmieri, Anthony Ramos, Rosie Perez
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Written by: Alan Fox, based on a novel by "Ed McBain" (Evan Hunter), and on a screenplay by Hideo Oguni, Ryūzō Kikushima, Eijirō Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa
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Directed by: Spike Lee
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MPAA Rating: R for language throughout and brief drug use
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Running Time: 133
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Date: 08/15/2025
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Son Screen
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic police procedural High and Low (1963), brilliantly keeps the key elements of the original, as well as satisfyingly updating and energizing the story.
New York music mogul David King (Denzel Washington) has it all. He has assembled a large collection of hitmaking artists over his long career, he has the respect of his colleagues, and the love of his family, including his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and son Trey (Aubrey Joseph). He also has a loyal driver in Paul (Jeffrey Wright), and Paul's son Kyle (Elijah Wright) is like a brother to Trey.
On the day that David has moved his finances around in the hopes of buying out his label, Stackin' Hits Records, to save it from a corporate takeover, he gets a call: Trey has been kidnapped. The kidnapper asks for $17.5 million in ransom. David knows he must pay, but when it is revealed that the kidnapper took Kyle by mistake, it makes David's conundrum much more complicated. David must eventually take to the streets of his former neighborhood to set things right.
While the Japanese original was focused on a wealthy shoe manufacturer, Highest 2 Lowest moves the setting to the music business, where Lee can tackle such issues as AI-created music, art-versus-commerce, social media interference, and more. (Several characters assert that, today, "attention is the biggest currency.")
The central conflict — whether the main character should be as responsible for his driver's son as he would be for his own son — is kept at a high pitch. Lee includes a fascinating scene in which King, alone in his office, talks to photos of famous musicians ("what should I do?"), and then plucks two magazine covers adorned with his own picture off the wall ("y'all talk to each other").
Washington, certainly one of the acting GOATs, gives a magnetic, cocky, but slightly off-kilter performance, as if David King never fully found his place in the world and is still searching.
Whereas the second half of the original movie focused on the meticulous efforts of police to track down the kidnapper — and the mogul character isn't really involved — Lee's remake ramps things up and puts King at the center of the drama. New York City becomes a character as well, with the throngs of Yankees fans crowding onto a train, and the dancing bodies at a Puerto Rican street festival. The showdown with the kidnapper — they face off with the glass of a recording studio booth between them — is another electric moment.
Highest 2 Lowest has its odd touches, including some curious doubled-up editing and a slightly heavy music score, but these are also Lee's personal touches (which also include shout-outs to music and art that he loves). Even though this is a remake, he makes it his own.
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