'Highest 2 Lowest' Review: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Reimagine Kurosawa
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Reimagine Kurosawa
Premise - “When a powerful music mogul is targeted by a ransom plot, he is forced to fight for his family and legacy while jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.”
Director - Spike Lee
Writer - Alan Fox (Adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s ‘High & Low’)
Noteworthy cast - Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Dean Winters, & Ice Spice
My thoughts - I’m pretty confused on the strategy with this one. Kind of weird that it is playing barely any theaters before being dumped on a streaming service that barely anyone subscribes to.
It doesn’t feel like a movie that would play well on streaming. I found the first act almost unwatchable. There is a non zero chance I would have just turned it if I was at home. It’s the one stretch of the film that feels like the most one-to-one remake of the source material. Not to mention the obnoxious score. It almost undercuts anything special happening on screen in the first act.
I’m so glad I was in a theater and was forced to stick with it though. Because despite my feelings about the first act, this isn’t a bad film at all. In fact, it’s a really really great one.
Once we get more of Spike being Spike and not Spike trying to do Kurasawa, the film starts to take a life of its own in the best way possible. It all kicks into gear during a lengthy scene on the subway. As the subway moves through the city, we experience the sights and sounds the greatest city in the world has to offer including Puerto Rican Day festivities & the subway becoming overrun by obnoxious Yankees fans.
While the subway scene pushes us in the right direction, the final hour includes two of my favorite scenes of the year. Both happen to be between Denzel and A$AP Rocky, who I would never have guessed was capable of going toe to toe with Denzel.
The way it takes the themes of the original film and expands on them to make them relevant to today is a stroke of genius. Exploring parasocial relationships, fame, and legacy in the way the it does is nothing short of brilliant.
I also just found the character of Yung Felon to be extremely compelling and well written. The only reason he isn’t successful is that he never got his lucky break. Spike doesn’t shy away from showing us how absurdly talented he is while also reminding us that even most talented people don’t always succeed in this world. In fact, they rarely do. Unless you are well connected, you need to get incredibly lucky. Even David knows that had he discovered this kids talent and given him a break, his life would have changed & things would have been so different. But he didn’t.
The haunting final act and the emotional ending scene are so moving in their own right that you can easily forgive the sins of act #1.
I guess it’s fitting that “Highest 2 Lowest” has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
How did it do at the box office? - Not really a box office play as the film will be available to stream on AppleTV+ starting on September 5th
Did it win any Oscars? - TBD
Where to watch - Currently in theaters & the streaming on AppleTV+ starting on September 5th