Ivan Radford | On 21, Sep 2025

Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky
Certificate: 15

“All money ain’t good money,” declares David King (Denzel Washington) in Highest 2 Lowest. Spike Lee’s latest joint is a film rooted in that distinction – between good money and bad – something that becomes evident from the opening shot, which puts us at the very highest end of New York real estate. It’s here we see King in full flow, a music industry legend with all the clout and influence of an established mogul. His glossy life comes to a halt, though, when he becomes the victim of a kidnapping – a jolt that takes him from the heights of success to the lows of gritty desperation.

The film, a reimagining of Kurosawa’s High and Low, is less police procedural and more moral saga. It follows King as he plans to re-acquire his record label Stackin’ Hits, which he founded but sold several years ago – a 180-degree turn that he hopes will regalvanise his career and also his cultural legacy, even though the financial pivot doesn’t go down well with his wife, Pamela (Ilfenesh Hadera). But his plans are thrown awry when a kidnapper demands money in exchange for his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph) – only for them to discover that they’ve accidentally kidnapped Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of Paul (Jeffrey Wright), David’s driver.

If David uses the money he had intended for the Stackin’ Hits deal, he’ll both upend the final chapter of his career and commit fraud by repurposing contractual funds for personal purposes. If he doesn’t, he’ll be letting down a lifelong friend who grew up with him in the Bronx, as well as let down both their sons – and public perception of him will nosedive. The result is an absorbing conundrum that Lee lets unfold at a freewheeling pace – taking us from a slow, thoughtful character drama into an increasingly intense thriller. What starts as a soaring tale that sweeps through the streets of Brooklyn with a glossy, jazz-infused confidence winds up zeroing in on a punch-up between the carriages of a moving train – and, in an inspired flourish, pausing the action for a sequence in a recording booth.

The cast are exceptional, from Jeffrey Wright’s no-holds-barred friend with a passion that propels him past the point of the law to real-life musician A$AP Rocky, whose complicated bond with King places him somewhere between would-be prodigal son and resentful malcontent. The latter almost steals the show in one heated rap battle that drills into the dilemma at hand: a choice between art and commerce, between morals and reputation.

At the heart of it all, Denzel Washington is sensational, swaggering through every set piece and scenario with a blistering energy that is at once controlled and constantly in flux. Clearly revelling in reuniting with Lee, he’s a bubbling ball of tiny gestures, big speeches and unspoken conviction. He presents King as a man who carries power in every step and breath he takes, but who is also keenly aware of that power – a power not only financial but cultural, as he chooses what is created, what is distributed and what is promoted, each decision rippling from the highest to the lowest rung of society. He’s an artist but also inescapably a capitalist – an oxymoron that gives Lee’s joint (made, as ever, by his own production company) a characteristically personal streak. As Lee crafts an intimate epic about creativity and loyalty trumping greed and ego, what emerges is a gripping examination of when to do the right thing in a world that pressures us do everything for the wrong reasons. And, of course, the soundtrack totally slaps.

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