Highest 2 Lowest 2025 Movie Review – Spike Lee’s Self-Indulgent Spectacle

Highest 2 Lowest is Rated R by Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for language throughout and brief drug use.

Movie Review – Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

There’s a difference between mindless, shot-for-shot clones and remakes that actually have a pulse. Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest falls firmly into the latter category, electrifying and unapologetically its own beast. Adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low itself lifted from Ed McBain’s King’s Ransom this isn’t a timid homage. By swapping shoes for music, Lee (with a screenplay from Alan Fox) proves he’s finally learned the hard lesson from his Oldboy misfire: if your remake doesn’t have a soul, it’s best left in a ditch somewhere. Sparks, passion, purpose if you’ve got them, good things happen. If not, you’re stuck serving us bland covers nobody asked for.

Highest 2 Lowest is classic Spike Lee on steroids: Black culture, New York sports, architecture, melting-pot chaos all rendered with Matthew Libatique’s kinetic lens. Music isn’t just backdrop here; it’s the industry metaphor Lee can’t resist twisting, showing us that sometimes filmmaking, like hip-hop, is careening off a cliff. And yes, he has fun with it: the ransom exchange at Yankee Stadium, with a trainload of outrageously indignant fans, is pure Lee, who somehow convinces us that Red Sox fans are to blame for everything.

But beneath the theatrics, Lee still keeps one eye on the moral and class questions that fuel the original. Denzel Washington’s David King whose surname is loaded enough to make you think oh, Lee, really? is a Grammy-winning musician turned hip-hop mogul, ready to gamble $17.5 million to wrest control of his label and support rising Black talent. The pressure is enormous, compounded by an entertainment world evolving faster than his grasp, where even generative AI earns a scorching verbal dressing-down from Washington that could reduce a studio exec or a robot to ash.

The film luxuriates in David’s world, with production designer Mark Friedberg packing his home with Black cultural and sports ephemera that screams wealth, taste, and just a pinch of obsession. Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali, Kamala Harris, a replica Jackie Robinson jersey it’s a shrine to Black excellence, and yet somehow still a set piece that could easily double as an Instagram fantasy board. Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), David’s supportive yet far from silent wife, steps aside as David plays high-stakes Monopoly with his label, temporarily letting him flex while plotting her own charitable moves.

David’s son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has a better eye for talent than most adults in this movie, particularly spotting singer Sula Janie Zimmie (Aiyana-Lee). David occasionally flexes stubbornness for dramatic effect, but mostly, he’s asserting that he’s still got the magic touch spotting raw talent like a man trying to prove he’s not irrelevant. It’s not subtle: the character practically doubles as Lee himself, navigating the treacherous waters of a modern entertainment landscape while keeping one eye on legacy and one on Instagram clout.

Viewed this way, the ending is both a flex and a challenge: Lee proving he can still play with the best while throwing down a dare to the next generation of Black filmmakers. Easter eggs like a hidden “A24” nod cleverly extend the metaphor to indie versus mainstream cinema, because of course, Lee is never not meta.

There are bumps, of course. When the film drifts deeper into the High and Low territory, the kidnapping plot threatens to dilute the unique flavor. A$AP Rocky’s kidnapper, energetic if somewhat cartoonish, mistakenly snatches Trey’s friend instead of Trey himself, risking a loss of narrative tension. Howard Drossin’s classical score initially feels as out of place as a tuxedo at a hip-hop show, though later it grows into something both fresh and emotionally resonant.

As David reneges on the ransom deal much to the frustration of the tragically mortal Paul (Jeffrey Wright, dramatically hilarious as ever) Lee threads class, pride, and social-media theater through the story. David and the abductor share the same industry, which only makes the moral stakes sharper. The film gleefully comments on cancel culture, 24/7 news cycles, and the dubious rewards of “doing the right thing” a particularly spicy critique of our modern obsession with morality policing.

At the end of the day, Highest 2 Lowest is deliriously entertaining. Lee doesn’t just update a classic he wraps it in his obsessions, his city, and his attitude, serving it with attitude, wit, and unapologetic bravado. There are no lows here, only highs and a few deliciously pointed smirks along the way.

Highest 2 Lowest 2025 Parents Guide

Violence: This isn’t the type of violence where you shield your kids’ eyes it’s the type where you lean over and whisper, “Wow, they really went with that stunt, huh?” Expect your standard action-flick buffet: a few scuffles, some heavy shoving, maybe a moment where someone gets slammed hard enough to require a chiropractor. Blood makes a cameo, but it’s less Tarantino and more “oops, paper cut from the script rewrite.”

Language: If swear jars were still a thing, this movie could fund a small nation’s infrastructure. Every possible flavor of profanity gets a turn, and some words are repeated so often they might as well be in the opening credits. Think of it as a masterclass in linguistic creativity or a reminder that the screenwriter owns a thesaurus and a grudge.

Sexual Content: The film doesn’t exactly drench itself in steaminess more like it gives you a quick wave from across the street. There’s a brief glimpse of nudity, but it’s about as sensual as a DMV waiting room. Flirtations happen, but romance never really gets out of the driveway.

Substance Use / Drugs: A brief drug use scene pops in just long enough to say “Hi” before vanishing. You won’t see anyone spiral into addiction here; it’s more like the movie needed to check the “R-rated” box and thought, “Eh, a quick puff will do it.” Alcohol’s around, but no one’s hitting the bottle hard enough to make headlines.

If you’re the kind of parent who wants to guard your kid from every swear word and vaguely dangerous activity, this isn’t your movie night. If you’re fine with a little grit, a lot of sass, and a plot that occasionally remembers it’s supposed to be coherent then grab the popcorn.

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