Directed By Spike Lee

Starring – Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, llfenesh Hadera

The Plot – When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business”, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Longtime collaborators, Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City

Rated R for adult language throughout and brief drug use

Highest 2 Lowest | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

If you need any proof of the timelessness in Ed McBain’s original material from the novel “King’s Ransom”, which has since been adapted into a celebrated feature length film from the likes of cherished director, Akira Kurosawa, then consider that here his sixty year old story has been repurposed by Spike Lee, who sees the themes and narratives associated with the book given a New York state of mind from one of the cities most passionate voices. Like the novel and film before it, this latest adaptation uses ages old character dissections to pull its audience into the dimensions of its mystery, and with many themes such as the complexities of wealth versus legacy, the toxicity of social media celebrity, and the enduring relevance of artistic integrity, the film makes many organic statements about the shape of the world that not only appraises some compelling social commentary that feels pointed by Lee’s own pen in the screenwriting, but also plays alongside the drama established from the plot’s kidnapping that makes its focus feel very versatile in its capture, allowing the details of the storytelling to remain fresh in their appeal throughout many thorough interactions that each attain that top level of Spike Lee rhythms that occasionally makes them feel like songs, or in this case raps, rather than dialogue. Being that this is a Spike Lee joint, it’s obvious that the film will also feature New York City in ways that are unavoidable throughout the extension of the presentation, and with cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, at the movie’s disposal, we’re not only treated to a visual siesta that covers the extensive corners of New York’s many individualized classes of wealth and culture, but also intricate framing in the many assembled shots that constantly treat the Big Apple like a character of its own within the movie’s unmitigated focus. Featuring breathtaking establishing shots of the city’s skyscraper skyline, or artistic versatility in the means of utilizing particular film and aspect ratios to convey insight into the class surroundings that Washington’s King travels through, the film doesn’t sacrifice stimulating style for its subversive substance, in turn appraising what I confidently feel is one of Lee’s most passionately absorbing projects for the city that he obviously loves and at times hates simultaneously. Likewise, the movie features all of Lee’s most memorable familiarities when it comes to his off-beat brand of filmmaking, with the best of them pertaining to his direct dialogue in POV captivity and moving platform that gets the character closer to the screen while they’re conveying vital exposition about the missions of rescue. As I will get to later, not everything is a hit with Lee’s decision making comforts on this particular project, but the ones that work allow his direction to stand out with enough distinction and personality that makes this such an affable engagement, attaining an unforeseen allowance in comedic material that effectively keep the atmosphere lighthearted without sacrificing the urgency of the established conflict. On top of this, the film is obviously performed exceptionally within the devastating combination of Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright, who each conjure elements of human complexity to characters that feel anything other than ideally perfect. This is especially the case for Washington’s King, not only within the many nervous ticks of his demeanor that articulate an uneasiness constantly eating away at his conscience, but also the irresistibly mesmerizing charms of his limitless charisma, which help us to evade preconceived judgments from a character whose upper class mentality occasionally get in the ways of his progressive thought process. As for Wright, he’s definitely the supporting character to Denzel’s lead, but that doesn’t keep him from constantly stealing scenes from his co-star with resilient grit and determination not typically associated with Wright’s roles over the last decade, affording us unfiltered access into his character’s imposing stature that often serves as a reliant muscle for King’s shady dealings. Even real life rapper A$ap Rocky makes the seamless transition to film as the movie’s primary antagonist, with a menacing means of psychology that is cunning and dangerous enough to play mental chess with one of the game’s most charmingly evasive leading actors of all-time.

NEGATIVES

While Lee has definitely delivered another feature length success that has kept his long-running streak of bangers alive, “Highest 2 Lowest” certainly isn’t without weaknesses, particularly with a majority of the movie’s problems coming from one of the strangest opening acts that I have seen from any movie this year. As much as it breaks my heart to say this, the underlining score from “25th Hour’s” own, Howard Drossin, is most compromising to the integrity of the many vitally establishing sequences within such a timeframe, resulting in this overly melodramatic and abrasive compositions intentionally or not turning this into a telenovela, featuring these exaggerated instrumental deliveries that intrude upon the clarity and coherence of character interaction with ear-shattering levels of volume that are not mixed particularly well into the integrity of these scenes. Drossin isn’t alone in his inferiorities, however, as the editing during this time features many of the same unorthodox techniques from Lee that detracts from the smooth visual storytelling that the movie depends on so frequently. As we’ve seen in other Spike Lee joints, a scene will feature a character enacting an action to their dialogue, and the editing will chop said action up into two different executions of such, from two entirely different perspectives in camera placement. This is an aspect to Lee’s direction that I’ve never enjoyed, and thankfully a majority of its occurrences happen strangely enough during the aforementioned opening act, but even in those limitations there’s still enough jarring detachment to take away from the integrity of the engagement, leaving some of the movie’s most intense sequences plagued by visual storytelling that feels like a DVD disc skipping during the moments you absolutely cannot afford for audience investment. Beyond the strange artistic choices of the movie’s opening act, the film’s performances also aren’t unanimously effective, with Ilfenesh Hadera being all sorts of wrong for the dramatic enveloping that is demanded of her character. As the mom in this story who sees her child being kidnapped, Lee asks Hadera to dig deep into her registry to unload some fiery intensity to the scene’s atmosphere, and between her channeling deviating between overdone and undercooked, she never reaches a level of effectiveness that feels natural in the integrity of the exercise, with a complete lack of tears and exaggerated emphasis that works unintentionally hilarious with Drossin’s aforementioned melodramatic score, but one that is thankfully suppressed into the backdrop of many characters by a second act that realizes her incompetence in the role. Finally, even the movie’s climax isn’t without error, as the sequencing of the final act of the movie involves an epilogue of sorts that unnecessarily keeps this movie’s runtime persisting past the two hour mark, leaving the movie incapable of delivering an effective ending that maintains its momentum to the final shot. If you told me that Lee and the producers came up with as many as three different endings, and decided to use all of them, I would believe you, as character actions and personal feelings are compromised from one scene to the next, with a glaring instance of inconsistencies that left me impatient for the final resolution. If the movie stops after a particular train sequence, with a final shot of celebrated celebrity innocence, then it would’ve unloaded a lasting image to the film that echoes our own toxic obsession, but unfortunately the movie stacks scenes on the way to the most conveniently safe and audience pleasing ending that it could possibly conjure, and it’s during this point in the film where it starts to feel every inch of its overstuffed runtime, which is a shame considering the film was able to even keep me firmly invested to a methodically moving opening act with its own abundance of problems.

OVERALL
“Highest 2 Lowest” is the kind of truth in advertising that encompasses the inconsistent and turbulent delivery of Spike Lee’s latest project, but one that comes out entertainingly engaging enough on the other side, with no shortage of thought-provoking commentary to leave a lasting impression on absorbing audiences. With masterclass performances from Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright, as well its unmitigated New York state of mind, the movie taps into the value of art in ways that continuously practices what it preaches, and even if not in Lee’s upper estate of cinematic bangers, does shine bright enough in asking the tough hypothetical questions of our friends and business associates that we all hope we never have to exercise into reality

My Grade: 7.6 or B