Hardly a minute into Highest 2 Lowest, the newest ‘Spike Lee Joint’ (Lee’s self-label describing his film’s individuality), one realises that this isn’t just another movie, even if it looks and moves like any other movie.

Lee’s film, his fifth starring Denzel Washington, keeps most of their last film’s — Inside Man — distinctive kineticism and sharp-focused approach to characters. David King (Washington) — once a high-profile music mogul with the sharpest ears for detecting new talent — is a staunch, strong-willed patriarch, whose record company is in the middle of a corporate buyout deal.

King, conflicted about losing the brand he made, wants to leverage his assets to regain ownership. That means no spending half-a-million on charity for his wife (Ilfenesh Hadera), and no time for his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), whom he keeps in check lest he gets drowned in the world of social media, where most of the young man’s attention lies.

In a few hours, as King nearly secures his company, a phone call shatters his world: Trey and his best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), son of King’s best friend and driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright) are kidnapped. The ransom is $17.5 million; that’s nearly everything King has.

Highest 2 Lowest, a thriller starring Denzel Washington, is stylistically, cinematographically, and statement-making-wise very much a Spike Lee film

An adaptation of High and Low, Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film with Toshiro Mifune, which was an adaptation of Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery, one can see and appreciate Lee’s reverence to Kurosawa (one of the production houses is Kurosawa Productions), but not at the compromise of Lee’s own individuality as a filmmaker.

Have no second thoughts about it: this is a Spike Lee Joint — stylistically, cinematographically, and statement-making-wise.

For a good three-quarters of the film, the screenplay by Alan Fox binds us to King — and Matthew Libatique’s wide-angled anamorphic cinematography makes sure your attention is not going anywhere. We never cut away from King’s problems to the rest of the world, be it kidnappers or the ineptness of the police.

Although a film about kidnappings and ransom, Lee’s film is as wise as King: in the latter stages it speaks of sensationalism, social media, the pressures of cancel culture — even if you do a good job, or make a hard decision — and the guiltless conceitedness of today’s generation. The lens we see the world through has the wisdom of a person who has lived through it all. As that wise but fallible man, Washington is at the top of his game. The story is about his journey from ‘highest 2 lowest’, and the rebirth.

But even with the statement-making and long sequences of character drama, Highest 2 Lowest is a thriller, first and foremost — one whose narrative structure, pace and feel is reminiscent of late 1990s-2000. Loose storytelling, be it in framing or agenda-pushing, is not on the film’s radar because of one simple fact: there was no need for it in this ‘Spike Lee Joint.’

Released by A24 and Apple Original Films, Highest 2 Lowest is rated R, but has no nudity, sexual situations, or excessive violence

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2025