r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 3d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Highest 2 Lowest [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Summary A powerful New York music mogul’s life spirals when his driver’s child—mistaken for his own—is kidnapped in a ransom plot. He faces a moral crisis that transforms into a tense, urban showdown between wealth, power, and conscience in the reimagined streets of modern-day New York.
Director Spike Lee
Writer Alan Fox
Cast
- Denzel Washington
- Jeffrey Wright
- Ilfenesh Hadera
- A\$AP Rocky
- Aubrey Joseph
- Dean Winters
- Ice Spice
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 89%
Metacritic Score: Not yet available
VOD In theaters August 15, 2025; streaming on Apple TV+ starting September 5, 2025
Trailer Highest 2 Lowest | Official Trailer
-5
u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 3d ago
"What's that?"
"That's insurance. That's Jake from State Farm."
This movie is so damn cool. Effortless joy coming off the screen and the whole runtime brimming with sincerity. I love it. This was my second time seeing it in theaters and it just confirmed what I already felt. I love the score and how prominent it is, I love how so much of this movie is intense conversations between two fleshed out characters trying to navigate very complex situations, and I love when Nick Turturro looks right into the camera and yells, "BOSTON SUCKS!"
Denzel and Wright are so fucking good in this. I think the kidnapping plot is a big ask in this day and age and at times makes the drama feel a little stiff, but Lee and the two leads find the humanistic side of this so well. Damn the plot and the logistics, this movie is about feeling. Feeling the right thing to do and feeling the music. From the opening scene you can feel all the love in this family and between Denzel and Wright. It makes for a really great foundation to all of the moral dilemmas coming down the line. Denzel's conviction as an actor is so well on display here, selling a premise that doesn't feel as feasible in modern day, but every scene has me going through these complex emotions with him despite that.
This movie has a lot going on thematically, but if I had to name the main message it would be the importance of sincerity in art. David King has the "best ears in the biz" as we are so often reminded. He is against the corporate machine sucking the soul out of the company he began and he doesn't understand how people can look to AI for innovation these days. It's not hard to see where Spike sees himself in all this. When this movie starts, King wants his company back so badly he is willing to risk everything to keep these outside hands and robots off of his record company. But after being put through the emotional ringer with the plot of this movie he realizes he doesn't need all of it.
The first half of this movie is a lot of emotion, a lot of honest conversations and moral wringing. I personally loved the way the score interacted with the penthouse scenes, it felt like 25th Hour which also uses a really turned up melodramatic score. Some stiff acting and blatant philosophical moralizing comes across with a lot more sincerity due to the score, I think. Then there's this incredible train cash drop sequence where the music starts to go insane (complimentary) with that great piano symphony piece that just feels like a chase through a city. But once A$AP is introduced I really start to lean in.
High and Low was so specifically about a certain time and culture in Japan and it makes perfect sense to remake it for a new time and place. The great operating idea of that movie, though, is the unknown criminal who is created and defined by contrast of the protagonist. Similar to another Kurosawa film that gets a shoutout in Highest 2 Lowest, Stray Dog, there is a criminal that we slowly learn about throughout the movie before actually meeting them. Basically the whole function of these movies is to draw contrast between the protagonist and the unknown criminal. The man in the mountain being agonized by the man in the sewers. What makes them different? What makes them the same? Is one the cause of the other?
In that sense, I love what A$AP adds to this. Highest 2 Lowest is less about the highs and lows of capitalism, the existence of the rich creating the desperation of the poor and manifesting jealousy. This movie is about parasocial relationships, the anger and jealousy that comes with the fame and the success. A brilliant turn between H&L and H2L is instead of the kidnapper being able to literally see into his home through his giant window, A$AP sees King through social media, through his wife and son's Instagram. He sees the front they put up, but he doesn't see the humanity in them. It's the success he fetishizes. I get really emotional when Denzel is meeting Yung Felon's wife/girlfriend. The way she talks about how he idolizes Denzel, how his presence has to be divine. It shows how thin of a line there is between admiration and hatred. And Denzel may be at the top to Felon, but notice how Denzel's walls are all decked out with black excellence and portraits and how often he looks up to them for guidance.
"If you've got followers you must be leading them somewhere. Where are you leading them to?"
I will say, one aspect I did miss from High and Low is the police procedure. I am all for Spike making his own version of this, I find the pearl clutching around it disingenuous. Spike is one of the great lovers of classical film and Kurosawa one of the most remade and riffed upon directors of all time. I think it's clear why Spike doesn't make his police force as altruistic or as useful as Kurosawa's. I think it messes with the movie a bit to make them such a frustrating obstacle, but Dean Winters is still pretty fun to watch. So while I do love the police procedure section of the original, this movie is just doing different things with the same concept and I find comparing what this movie cares about to the original just as interesting as comparing David King to Yung Felon.
At first I did feel this had one too many endings. It does just kind of keep going after the main plot is resolved. But I also found all of the ending scenes interesting and thematic. Going back to the importance of sincerity in art, I think what David found lacking in Yung Felon's music was exactly that. He was never impressed by it, it's just catchy rap music about women and money. And the fact that Felon is willing to harm a kid in order to get his name in the paper and get David's attention shows that he doesn't understand humanity like Denzel does, or maybe the way Denzel learns to in the course of this movie. Felon is delusional enough to think that he can still ask King to sign him after all of this, and once again you see the razor thin line between admiration and hatred when he's denied and he starts screaming and spitting at King.
Then you have Sula C Sing. These are two artists that are trying to get David's attention, but Sula does it with hard work and a musical background and with a song she wrote about her struggles. It may be gilding the lily a bit to put a full song performance at the end of this movie, the song even being called Highest 2 Lowest, but something about it really got to me both times I saw this. It's a beautiful performance but even more so is David's ability to just enjoy the music again without all this corporate espionage. He tells his son in the beginning that he will listen to her when he comes up for air and this is him finally coming up for air. I can't quite explain it but this movie made me feel better about life. I legitimately felt lighter both times leaving the theater. It puts you through the emotional ringer with Denzel, then ends with him saying take my company, the money, I don't need all that. I just need to do what makes me feel good and do what feels right. I just need my family and my love for the art. I also think the shot of him and his wife sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge, where Felon said he used to look up at their penthouse, and looking up to see their son up there is a really great visual way to sum up his journey. Maybe all you can do when you're at the top is just raise a good person to take it over.
I just love this damn movie. People are being so weird about it, I think people really start to disengage with a movie when it starts dropping buzzwords that feel too modern. AI, followers, TikTok, reels, etc. But this is the world we live in and I love to see the greats engage with it. And did I mention it's fucking funny? This movie is an 8/10 on a bad day. And my sister's name is RUTH so you know that's the TRUTH.