The new Spike Lee t first premiered in theaters on Tuesday, May 20th, as part of the out-of-competition Cannes premiere section of the festival. Reimagining Akira Kurosawa's critically acclaimed masterpiece High and Low, Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest sees the story take place in modern-day New York City, where David King, a titan in the music industry, receives a call that his son has been taken and is being held for ransom. Catapulted into this moral dilemma where lives are at stake, he must make a fast decision! The film stars Denzel Washington (David King), Jeffrey Wright (Paul Christopher, David's friend and chauffeur), Ilfenesh Hadera (David's Wife), A$AP Rocky (Yung Felon, an up-and-coming artist), and Aubrey Joseph (Trey King, David's son). At the directing helm sits Spike Lee, an infamous director with countless classics to his name, such as: Do the Right Thing(1989), Jungle Fever(1991), Malcolm X(1992), and BlacKkKlansman(2018), this marks Spike's first feature-length film in five years since Da 5 Bloods in 2020.

There is nothing inherently bad about the film; it's an interesting plot, most of the performances are good, and the cinematography is fine, but it lacks much of what Spike Lee is famous for. This is a film that could've been directed by almost any working actor today, and for a man like Spike, who built his fame off of each of his movies looking and feeling like they've come right from Spike himself, this film is a letdown. However, as previously stated, it's not bad by any means; it just lacks all the flavor and pizazz that the director is known for, and that is a bit disappointing. Maybe it's the fact that it's produced by Apple, or maybe Spike has lost his relatability with the common man after so many years of being famous, but this just felt like another movie. There is no way that this was made by one of the greatest filmmakers in the past thirty years, starring one of the greatest actors in the last thirty years, and the story was a reimaging of one of the greatest films of all time, something just feels off, everything in this film feels gentrified. There will be people who love this movie, but no one will ever say that this is Spike Lee's best film, or this is Denzel Washington's best performance, and this will never be compared to the original High and Low.

All that aside, this was still a pretty fun film, with a surprising performance by A$AP Rocky and some cool scenes that felt like Spike Lee had some impact on them. Not going into specifics, but there is one scene in particular that involves a rap battle between two titular characters and the way the lyrics are written in a way that Spike Lee's influence is felt. Also, the last scene in the film is very timely and on point for what would happen today if the film took place in real life, and that's impressive considering how many films and filmmakers don't understand the world around them once they get too popular. Not coming from an acting background, A$AP Rocky is surprisingly good as Yung Felon, however, he should stick with music because he's much better at it, but if he ever wanted to get more into acting, this film shows that he could. Denzel is good in this, but it's a little underwhelming for a man with two Academy Awards under his belt. There was never a point in this film where his performance was impressive, not to say that he wasn't cool in the film, he was, but the film leaves the audience expecting more out of the main character of the film, and that's a large theme with the movie, expecting more. The film was fine, nothing special, but when incredible minds who are known for doing such amazing work come together to reimagine a masterpiece, it should feel exactly like this, and this film doesn't. This film would be really good if the person watching the film didn't know how stellar Spike Lee's directing skills are, and how phenomenal an actor Denzel Washington is, and how breathtaking the original film is. If the person watching the film had zero expectations of the film based on prior knowledge, they would think this film was great.