Spike Lee’s latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, premiered at Cannes and finds the director returning to a familiar creative partnership with Denzel Washington for a bold reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller High and Low.
Lee opens the film with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” over aerial shots of New York, signaling the musical and cinematic influences that shaped his taste—from his mother’s love of classic Hollywood musicals to a childhood introduction to Kurosawa. At Cannes, Lee said he moved from wanting to see “people’s heads chopped off” in samurai films to appreciating Kurosawa’s storytelling breadth; Rashomon informed the multiple-perspective structure of his debut She’s Gotta Have It, and that spirit of adaptation is central here.
Highest 2 Lowest marks the fifth Lee–Washington collaboration (following Malcolm X, Mo’ Better Blues, He Got Game, and Inside Man). Washington plays David King, a multi-millionaire record mogul at the center of a moral crisis when a kidnapping goes disastrously wrong. The film stages a series of confrontations that force King to weigh legacy, morality and loyalty—most notably when his chauffeur (Jeffrey Wright) begs to save his own son, who was mistakenly abducted in place of King’s child. Elijah Wright and Aubrey Joseph appear in the family-related roles; A$AP Rocky plays the young kidnapper whose motivations and intelligence Lee wanted to portray as believable and formidable rather than caricatured.
Lee and Washington both used the Cannes platform to generate awards conversation; Washington flew in from his sold-out Broadway run of Othello and was unexpectedly presented with a Palme d’Or by festival director Thierry Frémaux. At 70, Washington’s performance is being positioned as awards-caliber, with Lee calling him “the world’s greatest living actor.”
The production intentionally blends big-scale action and music. A standout sequence—edited by Barry Brown—follows King carrying $17.5 million in Swiss francs through the 6 train amid a chaotic NYPD pursuit and motorbike intercepts, a set piece that nods to William Friedkin’s The French Connection. Lee also cites Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones as an influence on the film’s confrontational dynamics. Musically, the film is saturated with contemporary selections and features artists Lee discovered on Instagram, like the Fergus McCready Trio and British singer Ayana Lee; Lee analogized his approach to jazz musicians reworking standards, describing his film as “respecting the rich material and flipping it.”
Highest 2 Lowest will play exclusively in theaters from August 15 to September 5 before arriving on Apple TV+; Lee and distributor A24 have emphasized seeing the film on the big screen, describing it as a kinetic, large-scale spectacle.
Summary
Highest 2 Lowest is Spike Lee’s modern take on Kurosawa’s High and Low, starring Denzel Washington as a music executive forced into a moral crucible when a kidnapping misfires. The film premiered out of competition at Cannes, leans heavily on musical and cinematic homages, stages large-scale action and intimate ethical dilemmas, and features notable turns from Jeffrey Wright and A$AP Rocky. It will be a theatrical exclusive for three weeks before streaming on Apple TV+.
Additional comments and context
– Cannes premieres can amplify awards momentum; the festival remains a visible launchpad for Oscar-season contenders, especially when strong lead performances are involved. Washington’s presence and the surprise Palme d’Or presentation add to that narrative.
– Lee’s reworking of Kurosawa rather than a straightforward remake aligns with his career-long habit of folding influences—jazz, classic Hollywood musicals, world cinema—into a distinctive, contemporary voice. That approach may broaden the story’s cultural resonance beyond a crime thriller.
– The film’s emphasis on moral choice—what one sacrifices for family versus loyalty to friends—gives it emotional stakes that can engage audiences beyond spectacle.
– The theatrical-exclusive window suggests the filmmakers are betting on box-office impact and audience experience; if the film delivers the promised big-screen sequences, that strategy could pay off.
Hopeful note
Highest 2 Lowest reunites a storied director–actor pairing and channels classic filmmaking influences into a modern, emotionally charged thriller. Its focus on moral complexity and the strong lead performance by Denzel Washington make it poised to both entertain mainstream audiences and attract awards attention.