Review: Highest 2 Lowest

Score: B+

Director: Spike Lee

Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Dean Winters

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Rated: R

It takes extreme confidence to remake a film from one of the greatest directors of all time. But few people have has much earned confidence as Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. Together, they've collaborated on some of the most entertaining (Inside Man) and powerful (Malcolm X) movies ever made. Their fifth pairing certainly has its flaws. But when they're both cooking, the highs are as high as anything this year.

Highest 2 Lowest, which updates Akira Kurosawa's High to Low, makes the most of its New York City setting. At a time when studios are looking to shoot anywhere cheap, Lee lets you know this is really the Big Apple. The movie begins with the sun rising over Brooklyn, set to "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! It's both sincere and ironic. The beauty is undeniable, but Denzel's record mogul David King is in for the worst day of his life.

After taking a big financial gamble at work, he gets a devastating phone call: a kidnapper has taken his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) and demands $17.5 million for his release. After the NYPD brings Trey home, it's revealed the man actually snatched Kyle (Elijah Christopher), the son of David's best friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright). Still, he demands the exorbitant ransom.

And this is where the movie takes off. David weighs his impossible options, all of which will be scrutinized by the public. He questions what his legacy will mean if he's broke or cruel. Or as Trey puts it: "The man with the best ears in the business, and the coldest heart." Exploring these moral quandaries, and then following it up with an absolutely electrifying chase scene, is why Spike is still the man.

Denzel is, too. At age 70 he has resolutely refused to phone it in. Even if his taste remains questionable (three Equalizer movies, The Little Things), he is transfixing in all of them, even in disappointments like Gladiator II and Roman J. Israel, Esq. This surpasses all of those, as he delivers his best performance since Fences, even echoing that film's most famous scene opposite Joseph.

His equal in every scene they share is Wright. Paul has served as David's right-hand man ever since getting out of prison. He explodes with righteous anger at an overzealous police force and his friend's surprising callousness, even as he tries to walk a path of peace. Wright even gets the film's two funniest lines, as Paul and David head to their old neighborhood to take matters into their own hands.

Highest 2 Lowest may not be a masterpiece like its forerunner. It has some frankly bizarre editing in its opening 20 minutes, and Lee still can't decide how to end his films. But in between that is some absolutely dynamite filmmaking. Even if Apple is barely giving this a theatrical release, it's a great summer movie, a great New York movie, and a great showcase for two legends.

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About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.