Spike Lee’s ‘Highest’ sure to rank among his lowest
As Spike Lee enters his fifth decade as a preeminent filmmaker, he’s ruefully showing signs of fading. As proof, look no further than his latest discombobulated joint, “Highest 2 Lowest.” Not only is it an ill-advised remake of Akira Kurosawa’s masterful “High and Low,” it’s a vastly disappointing reunion with his “Malcolm X” leading man, Denzel Washington. It’s their 5th collaboration. And although no one will mistake the pair for Scorsese and De Niro or, more specifically, Kurosawa and “High and Low” star Toshiro Mifune, it tarnishes the legacy of their partnership.
They fail because the actor and his director repeatedly resort to their worst instincts, which is an inclination to accentuate flash over substance. The brilliant “Inside Man” remains the lone exception to their shared megalomania. Like this one, that one was built around an elaborate crime. But by trading in a nail-biting bank robbery for a wan kidnapping of a music mogul’s son, the two lower the stakes considerably. And then compound that lack of excitement by gilding the lily.
The beauty of “High and Low,” still one of the greatest crime dramas ever put to film, is that Mifune kept his performance muted and rooted in reality. An executive on the verge of a hostile takeover of a giant footwear company, Mifune’s titan of industry was powerful yet humble and morally conflicted. Washington, on the other hand, portrays a pompous record company bigwig (“Best ears in the business.”) who always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. He’s boisterous and loud. And, yes, irritating, his arrogance so thick it blocks out all signs of the man’s humanity.
He’s utterly unlikable. And I think that it was by design because all of his co-stars suffer from the same affliction – whether it’s Ilfenesh Hadera as his willowy trophy wife, Pam, or the wooden Aubrey Joseph as his adolescent, social media-obsessed son, Trey. The latter serves as the target of a kidnapping scheme seeking to separate Washington’s David King from the $17.5 million he’s earmarked to buy back his creation, Stackin’ Hits Records.
The level of revulsion these privileged, Richie Rich folks project is mild, but it keeps you always at an arm’s distance. We can’t relate. But, obviously, a man as wealthy as Lee can. And that’s part of the problem. He’s lost touch with his reasonably meager beginnings, the very thing that made his early films so accessible. Heck, even the real working folks, like “King David’s” loyal chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), and the three inseparable detectives (Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson and LaChanze) summoned to solve the crime are either off-putting or devoid of personalities.
Sharing a large part of the blame is actor-turned-writer Alan Fox, a rookie with no concept of how to shape characters or fashion compelling drama. To his credit, he cribs little from the original screenplay, an adaptation of Ed McBain’s 1958 novel, “King’s Ransom,” by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryȗzô Kikushima and Eijirô Hisaita. But what he concocts completely misses the point of the book and Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece. And that would be contrasting the social and economic disparity between the haves and have-nots.
There’s a trace of that element in the form of Wright’s Paul Christopher, but he’s basically an equal due to the lifelong friendship he shares with King David. But cracks do form in their bond when it’s revealed that it was Paul’s son, Kyle (Wright’s real-life son, Elijah), who was mistakenly snatched instead of Trey. Initially, King David is reluctant to lend the $17 million ransom to his pal. What changes his mind is Trey telling his Pops that a failure to produce the dough will render the old man a pariah on social media. Whereas playing along will cast him the hero, and in turn increase CD sales, assuming anyone still buys CDs. You see, it’s all about the money.
It’s the antithesis of “High and Low,” which specifically favored benevolence over cash. Yes, Mifune forked over the moola to his chauffeur in the original, but he was at peace with the prospect that he might not ever get it back. Not King David. He’s determined to risk his very life to retrieve what’s his. He’s even willing to shoot to kill.
That preposterous quest fills much of the third act, when King David comes face to face with the culprit, a wannabe rapper named Yung Felon, played well by hip-hop star A$AP Rocky, the only actor here with a semblance of a pulse. And I suspect that’s because he strays from Fox’s script to ad-lib most of his lacerating lines. When he’s on screen, the movie comes alive, but that’s not until late in the picture.
What precedes it is a chore to endure. Everything about it is off: the casting, the tone, the acting choices, the laughable dialogue, and the dozen or so pointed digs Lee levels at Boston sports fans, despite a cameo or two by former Celtic Rick Fox. Lee even bungles the money drop, which in the original was so intense you forgot to breathe. Here, it’s an unmitigated disaster in which Lee repeatedly fumbles the ball, from the ridiculous way King David clumsily drops the satchel containing 100,000 Swiss francs (they’re lighter than U.S. tender) through the elevated subway tracks, to the unintentionally comical getaway, which Lee intercuts with scenes of NYC’s annual Puerto Rican festival. It’s a mess.
Worse, it adds to the movie’s grueling 135-minute runtime, placing it closer to a punishment than an entertainment. At one point, you feel so embarrassed for Lee and Washington that you’re tempted to flip the channel, which is easy to do since the flick is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+. But you stick with it because you’re intrigued by the wonder of how much dumber it will get amid tacking on false ending after false ending. And what’s up with those weird screen swipes featuring the Stackin’ Hits logo? It’s as baffling as the stupid name of King David’s company. “Highest 2 Lowest” is “Stackin’” all right. But it ain’t vinyl it’s piling up.
Movie review
Highest 2 Lowest
Rated: R for brief drug use, language throughout
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Aubrey Joseph, Elijah Wright and A$AP Rocky
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Alan Fox
Runtime: 135 minutes
Where: Streaming on Apple TV+
Grade: D
