Highest 2 Lowest Review

Spike Lee's Reinterpretation of Kurosawa's Classic Thriller is a Frustrating Mess

By: Marc Kozak

Highest 2 Lowest

Spike Lee's Reinterpretation of Kurosawa's Classic Thriller is a Frustrating Mess

By: Marc Kozak

I'll say this right at the top: if you're expecting Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest" to be a faithful remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 classic thriller, adjust your expectations now. While the basic plot beats are essentially the same, this is very much a thorough reinterpretation funneled through the lens of Lee's long-time thematic interests. And to be honest, that's a good thing. "High and Low" is already perfect as it is; it doesn't need to be remade. Kurosawa's critiques of class, capitalism and consumer culture are still more than relevant today, so there's certainly grounds to try and adapt the story into modern times. Unfortunately, Lee's attempt at a bold and modern reimagining feels archaic and unfocused, and the legendary director constantly gets in his own way with bizarre filmmaking choices that often call attention to themselves in unflattering ways.

Denzel Washington, reunited with Lee for the first time since 2006's "Inside Man," plays David King, a legendary record-label founder and hitmaker struggling to hold on to his company amidst talks of a hostile takeover that would remove King from power and shift the label's focus away from discovering black artists. Right as King is ready to leverage his family's entire wealth to maintain his controlling interest, he gets a call from a mysterious kidnapper who claims to have his son and will only return him alive for a sum of $17.5 million, an amount that is just about all King has. If you're seen Kurosawa's original, you know that the situation isn't quite what it seems, and King soon faces an impossible moral dilemma.

This first hour is shockingly poor, as Lee speedruns through what should be a tense and compelling hostage situation. Every decision Lee makes seems to lower the stakes. The first call from the kidnapper is a profoundly awkward scene, almost as if a different call came in to Denzel's personal phone and he just answered it while filming. Denzel also portrays Lee as stunningly unbothered by the very serious situation, as he struts around confidently, smiling and cracking jokes. A piano score straight out of a soap opera never stops playing under all of the action, mixed high enough to be a constant distraction, and one that undercuts everything going on. Lee and editor Barry Alexander Brown make the seemingly intentional decision to make multiple quick cuts to different angles in the middle of normal conversation (often in the middle of a single line of dialogue), a technique that is impossible to ignore and adds nothing to the scene.

" Spike Lee's attempt at a bold and modern reimagining feels archaic and unfocused, and the legendary director constantly gets in his own way with bizarre filmmaking choices. "

It's tempting to give Lee the benefit of the doubt and say that all of these things are intentional, maybe an effort at providing camp, maybe a rope-a-dope strategy to keep the viewer off balance in preparation for the events of the second half. Whatever it is, it doesn't work. Even if the second half of the movie is the best work of Lee's career (which it isn't), there is no excusing how bad the first half is. I've already seen lots of critics gloss over the first hour like it doesn't count, using whatever euphemisms needed to justify their final 4- or 5-star review. I think the more likely explanation is that Lee struggled to figure out how to handle Kurosawa's initial setup without resorting to imitation, took a swing and missed.

In a possibly more welcome adjustment, Lee completely removes the lengthy police procedural scenes from the original, instead choosing to portray the cops as completely useless assholes. Lee is probably hesitant to give the police anywhere near the sense of competency that they show in Kurosawa's version, instead hammering us with a more clownishly stupid police force that fits Lee's (and many others') worldview. The lead detective (John Douglas Thompson) has no control over the situation and every other word out of the mouth of his partner (Dean Winters from Allstate's Mayhem commercials) is "fuck," as he shows an almost cartoonish hostility towards criminals, victims and innocent bystanders alike.

Lee does nail the big action set piece where the ransom money is delivered, in a thrilling sequence where the kidnapper instructs King to throw the suitcase of money off of a moving subway train, leading to a street chase through neighborhoods of New York. It's a thrilling scene in its own right, and one lovingly punctuated with the kind of New York flavor that Lee does so well. Yankee fans on their way to a game crowd around King on the train, loudly proclaiming their hatred for their local Boston rivals. The kidnappers zoom through a Puerto Rican day festival on motorcycles, while Rosie Perez and Anthony Ramos introduce the crowd to Eddie Palmieri and his Salsa Orchestra, who provide the pulsating rhythm to rest of the scene. It's a wonderfully controlled sequence that is so well done, it makes you wonder why the rest of the movie couldn't be in that kind of mode.

Even though the concept of a high-powered record company mogul is becoming outdated in itself, it still serves as a mostly effective way to modernize some of the issues Kurosawa dealt with in the original. King, although he is financially successful, is determined to maintain some kind of integrity in an artform that is increasingly all about the money. His wife (Ilfenesh Hadera) reminds him of the joy he used to have simply listening to music and discovering new artists, encouraging him not to lose sight of that amidst high-dollar corporate dealings. Eventually, things come to a head when King comes face to face with the kidnapper and aspiring rapper Yung Felony (ASAP Rocky) in a fascinatingly bizarre scene that literally becomes a rap battle in a music studio. It's a generational conflict between the old head who is all about hard work and quality versus the new school of flashy beats and TikTok fame. The world is changing, for better or for worse, and much of "Highest 2 Lowest" feels like Lee defiantly defending the old ways as king. At times it feels a bit like "old man yelling at cloud," but these are things that Lee is surely thinking about as it pertains to his legacy and his continuing struggle to create art in 2025.

It's hard to say a bad word about Denzel, a giant of an actor who has dominated the screen like no one else throughout his entire career. However, he doesn't really get going until the movie's later moments, seemingly moving through the first hour on autopilot, his usual natural charisma almost seeming forced. I'm willing to chalk that up to the disaster of the movie's first hour in general; he is much more effective as he gets out of his luxury penthouse and into the streets, moving like a shark through alleys and shadows. Jeffrey Wright fares much better as Paul, King's trusty and devout right-hand man. Wright seems like the only one who understands the weight of the narrative, with a desperation and emotional vulnerability that is easy to connect to.

There's a silent moment when Paul receives good news, and he falls to his needs in thankful prayer, his relief palpable and affecting. It's a wonderful moment, shot and performed perfectly, and the camera cuts away to something else for 30 seconds, only to inexplicably come back to Paul on his knees again, lessening the dramatic effect that had already been achieved. It's this scene that perfectly sums up "Highest 2 Lowest," a movie with potentially memorable moments that is constantly undercut by Lee's inability to get out of his own way and just tell a compelling story in a simpler, more effective form.