For many of his profession, moviegoers might rely on a brand new Spike Lee movie each 1-2 years. However one way or the other it’s been 5 years since his final joint, Da 5 Bloods in 2020, which arrived when his tackle racial politics and injustices collided with actual world occasions. Now he’s again for a fifth go-around with Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest, a reimagining of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa movie, Excessive and Low.
Washington stars as music government David King, who’s trying to save the report label he began from a company takeover. His leveraging of his property to purchase out a associate will get upended when Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his good friend and chauffeur, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright), is mistakenly kidnapped by somebody who thought he was King’s son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph).
King is pressured to wrestle together with his conscience over whether or not to make use of ransom cash for Kyle, cash that was speculated to rescue Trey earlier than the error is found. The strain from the police, Paul, and his household is one factor, however the truth that he would additionally doubtlessly be making a gift of the cash that might save his firm makes the choice all that rather more troublesome.
Lee, working from a script by first-time screenwriter Alan Fox, as soon as once more showcases New York Metropolis for all it’s value. King and his household reside in a lavish high-rise house with a balcony that faces Manhattan, permitting for views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Monetary District, and extra. The story takes the motion all around the metropolis, with Lee ensuring to incorporate scenes set within the Bronx to function boisterous Yankees followers.
Sadly, the sightseeing winds up being one of the best a part of the film. Lee and Fox ship some clunky storytelling, with the move from scene to scene hardly ever feeling pure. The drama of sure conditions by no means reaches its potential as a result of Lee appears to be targeted on issues like displaying small moments from totally different angles as an alternative of attending to the guts of the matter.
It’s additionally by no means clear what sort of story Lee is making an attempt to inform. The obvious subject would appear to be the present state of the music enterprise and the place of Black artists inside it, however the kidnapping plot principally pushes that to the facet. The push-and-pull of the ransom drama, in addition to the perpetrator of the kidnapping, tries to be a commentary on the corrosive affect of wealth, nevertheless it fails to hit dwelling.
After which we get to the performing. Washington and Wright are every Oscar nominees who normally garner respect simply with their presence, however each give subpar performances which might be indicative of the poor performing from many different solid members. Stilted line deliveries abound all through the movie, nearly as if Lee was restricted to only one take with each scene and simply determined to depart them as is. The extra dangerous traces pile up, the extra baffling it turns into that they had been allowed to point out up within the last product.
Lee is chargeable for some actually nice movies over the previous 30-40 years, however Highest 2 Lowest won’t be becoming a member of that listing. It has flashes of the director’s trademark trendy strikes, however the storytelling and performing blunt any deeper that means that Lee may need been making an attempt to impart.
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Highest 2 Lowest opens in theaters on August 15.
