A Spike Lee Joint is always something to look forward to, especially when he teams up with Denzel Washington. From Malcolm X to Inside Man, they have a special partnership that demands audience attention. Their latest venture, Highest 2 Lowest – a modern reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low – establishes a promising premise and tone, but then completely falls on its face in execution, particularly with its bizarrely off-putting score and screenplay. Both of which are the primary culprits that make this film a shocking misfire from these two dependable titans of Hollywood.
First and foremost, this film proves how important a score is to a film in establishing mood and tension. For a crime drama with the high stakes premise of a music mogul (Washington) having his son involved in a kidnapping-for-ransom plot, the audience being bombarded by an incessant department store piano score is a complete and utter distraction. It does not enhance or even match what’s happening on screen.
It’s one of the strangest choices for a film score in recent memory that simply does not work at all. Lee should have just stuck with the famous blues/Jazz hits that are peppered throughout, which are far more effective in connecting the themes and tone in the scenes which they’re present.
Moving on to the script which is equally as bizarre and poor as the score. It’s no excuse, but it makes sense that this is screenwriter Alan Fox’s first feature film screenplay. There are very few redeemable qualities that come to mind when thinking about the writing involved with this film. Every aspect of the storytelling feels antiquated and lazy. Washington’s character, David King, is the legendary music titan who has “the best ears in the industry” (and boy of they remind us of that fact).
And while streaming and social media are superficially represented within the context of the music industry, the notion of a record label king-maker having this much power in 2025 when artists have the ability to self-platform on a myriad of channels seems to totally disregard the current reality. I’m not arguing for the new model, which is a shitshow for artists, but it is what it is and Fox seems hellbent on taking us back to the 90s.
Then comes the crime procedural elements, which are so ham-fisted I had to hold back laughter a number of times. Crime dramas like this don’t get the same luxury of suspension of disbelief as, say, sci-fi/fantasy films do. So when the mechanics of law enforcement deliver the same quality as NCIS season 22, there’s a huge problem, especially from a Spike Lee film.
