Not everything in Highest 2 Lowest is perfect. Ilfenesh Hadera plays King’s wife, Pam, and she is out of her depth. Her performance is flat and lifeless. That’s not all her fault. The character was added to the script as a moral backstop for King, and is written to be one-note. Another rough patch is that the police are painted as inept and overly procedure-bound. This seems intentional, but the cops are ineffective and annoying. The exception is Detective Higgins, played by Dean Winters, who we know best as “Mayhem” from insurance commercials. Winters steps up and makes an entertaining mark with his performance. A$AP Rocky as the antagonist, Yung Felon, acquits himself powerfully, delivering a layered, complex character the viewer must consider carefully, instead of simply dismissing him as a “street thug.” There are cheeky winks to the audience, such as having an apartment numbered “A24,” the same as the film distributor. You either like these whimsical touches or you don’t. I enjoyed them.
“…Lee is not angling for ‘first weekend’ box office here…”
As one of the last authentic auteurs, Lee stays true to his idiomatic groove. He makes no apologies for his style, nor should he. He and Washington have worked together many times before, and their collaboration fits like a favorite pair of sneakers. This film is the best they’ve done together since Mo’ Better Blues and Malcolm X. Nothing going on here is new, with the exception of the fresh urban music, but it all works.
Lee’s passion for New York is unabashed, and he shows his love in sweeping, breathtaking shots of the city. The film opens with a gorgeous tracking shot of the King family penthouse at Olympia Dumbo tower overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ from Oklahoma, performed by Norm Lewis, plays during this shot. We know from the jump that this is a new take on an old story, told in an old way. Lee is going to catch shade for this time-tested approach, but the young-bloods need to recognize and respect that he is not angling for “first weekend” box office here. He builds his joints to last. Remaking a Kurosawa movie is one cinematic legend hat-tipping another. Highest 2 Lowest is brilliant filmmaking done as only Spike Lee can.
"…brilliant filmmaking done as only Spike Lee can."
