I’ve always been skeptical of remakes/reboots. Why create another version that was already successful? Sure, I understand because it’s for a new generation of people who haven’t seen the original film from Akira Kurosawa, High and Low. My answer to that is watch that movie first. The fact is, filmmakers continually remake classic films like Seven Samurai, 3:10 to Yuma, and True Grit. Yes, these were all Westerns, and High and Low is a thriller, but the principle still stands. Also, Spike Lee has already done a remake with Oldboy, with not-so-great results. However, I’m here to say he’s now batting .500 in making remakes, and Highest 2 Lowest is an amazing remake that is truly inspired. 

David King (Denzel Washington) is a highly successful record executive in New York City with his record label, Stacking Records, having made a ton of hits. He has a reputation for having a great ear, lives in a sky-rise penthouse in New York, and has a wonderful family with his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and their son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), who is a basketball prodigy. When he gets a call that his only son has been kidnapped, he is told to pay a ransom of $17.5 million. However, it isn’t Trey that has been kidnapped, but the son of his chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright). Still, the ransom is on, and David is forced to decide, with the time ticking down on whether or not to pay for the boy’s freedom.

Lee was certainly inspired to remake one of Kurosawa’s best films and made it in his own way, which fits into his style. The original film revolves around a businessman and his shoe company, but this version gets deep into the rap music business. It becomes knowledge based on the communication between the kidnapper and David that the motive is an aspiring artist who got rejected by David. This is a good, refreshing change of setting by Lee and screenwriter Alan Fox. It’s a rare thing that a director doesn’t resort to copying the movie scene by scene when doing a remake. One example of that is The Departed, which skillfully created its world while sticking to the main storyline from Infernal Affairs.

The ensemble from Lee doesn’t just feature the two big names like Denzel and Jeffrey Wright, but adds in some notable cameos and highly known rap artists, easy to pick out if you know your rap music. One of them is A$AP Rocky playing a rapper (shock) with a big hit song, the label is celebrating. While I am not familiar with his work, having a real-life rap star to play the character adds authenticity to the story’s setting, as Lee gave him some legitimate heat for his character to be a part of. That’s saying a lot, considering he’s working opposite Denzel Washington. Wright, who’s had a steady career before getting to his high point with American Fiction, more than holds his own and then some in this strong performance. And, of course, what you get from Denzel is just another mastery of acting by him. This is probably the second-best collaboration between him and Lee, only behind Malcolm X. 

There’s one scene in particular that stood out to me when King, confronting this dilemma between giving in to the demands or fighting to find the boy and the people behind it, is alone in his bedroom. He talks to all the celebrities on the wall, asking what they would do and how they would fight back against such an attack. He then grabs a Time magazine cover with his face on it, which says, “The Once and Future King,” and puts it against a photo of his son, as if he were the one who was kidnapped, and asks, “What do I do?” This was a very good scene as his body language and delivery gave me chills. This is what he’s so great at and why he is one of the best in the business today, and not just of his generation.

Lee, a proud Brooklyn native, maximizes New York City in the background with a beautifully furnished high-rise penthouse that David lives in, with pop cultural events framed on the walls. He’s got his beloved New York Knicks there with a jersey of Jalen Brunson (I bet Lee owns that and just stuck it in the film) on the wall next to Michael Jordan’s jersey, of course. Lee famously made commercials for Nike early in his career with Jordan (“It’s gotta be the shoes”), and this is a nice touch in Lee’s homage to basketball. This apartment speaks to NYC’s wealth, that the big players from all quarters. He even gave tribute to A24, the co-studio with Apple, with the apartment number being A24. There’s one particular scene where King takes the subway full of New York Yankees fans, and one of them (a cameo by Nicholas Turturro) remarks how their rivals, the Boston Red Sox, suck. I got a laugh out of it because Lee is a Yankees fan, and I am a Red Sox fan, so I find the referencing of the rivalry funny.

Another key technical thing Lee and his cinematographer did was change up the filmmaking style from digital for most of the narrative to film in one particular sequence.  He wanted to flex his proverbial filmmaking muscles with this trick. There is an interesting balance between digital film and celluloid film to distinguish certain moments in the movie, between the large shots of the city as a whole and much tighter shots. It is very easy to see how good it is when you learn that the DP was Matthew Libatique (Black Swan, A Star Is Born) while re-collaborating with editor Barry Alexander Brown to slice the scenes up perfectly. Then, there is the music, inserting a great soundtrack mixed up with different rap songs, including the original, “Back The Truck Up” made for A$AP Rocky’s character. It’s one to consider for Best Original Song come Oscar season. Washington even sings a line from the Broadway classic, Oklahoma! Rap meets Rodgers and Hammerstein. Interesting.

I almost forgot the music in this reboot. Lee has always littered his films with great music, whether it’s an amazing soundtrack of memorable songs from the past or an incredible score. This time, the soundtrack includes an opening straight out of the hit Broadway play Oklahoma. Where Washington literally says “What a Wonderful Day” the classic line from the musical. Two original songs “Back The Truck Up” from A$AP Rocky and Aiyana Lee who sings the title song “Highest to Lowest” which is the title of the movie. This was an amazing song along with the other I just mentioned. These are both worthy of getting potential Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. They are that good from my perspective.

Highest 2 Lowest is an amazing remake of a great classic Akira Kurosawa film, just like The Magnificent Seven, being a remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and 2022’s Living, a remake of Kurosawa’s Ikiru. When you choose to remake such classic movies from legendary directors, they better be damn good. This one is not only good, but it’s great from my humble perspective. The acting, cinematography, production design, music, and script were all in key, even though there were some small things in there that hold me back from giving it a perfect 5 stars. Spike Lee had a vision for this film, took the script, and ran with it. This is one of my favorite movies of the year, and I hope it has enough staying power to go the distance and get a lot of awards buzz. It’s that great of a film, and genuinely, I stand by that assessment no matter what anybody says.

4 ½  stars

Dan Skip Allen