In Spike Lee’s fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest, A$AP Rocky delivers a memorable performance in a forgettable movie. In this episode, Benji and Luke are joined by friend and scholar Inga Laurent to describe why Highest 2 Lowest is a disappointing “reimagining” of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece, High and Low, despite a promising premise and a few great performances. We dive into many of the contentious creative choices, including the loudly mixed musical score, product placement, and insurance company mascots.

We also explore:

Why High and Low has more to say about 2025 than Highest 2 Lowest

The prominence of improv from Denzel Washington and the incredible performances from A$AP Rocky and Princess Nokia

A snapshot of High and Low and a full breakdown of one astonishing scene in particular

Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains spoilers for both Highest 2 Lowest as well as High and Low.

Join us as we go into detail about why we’d recommend skipping Highest 2 Lowest and just watching High and Low instead.

Chapters:

• (00:00) Introduction to the podcast, the two films we will discuss, and our guest, Inga Laurent, along with first impressions of Spike Lee’s movie, Highest 2 Lowest
• (07:34) A discussion of key moments from Highest 2 Lowest in the first hour of the movie: the role of overbearing music, character relationships, David King’s isolated portrait of masculinity, and the ethical dilemma at the heart of the story.
• (29:34) The subway handoff of money to the kidnapper has divided audiences and we describe the many moments that didn’t work, starting with the music and ending all the bad one liners an insurance commercial character, Mayhem.
• (36:11) Our favorite moments of Highest 2 Lowest involved the least experienced actors in the project, A$AP Rocky and Princess Nokia. We also discuss the mano a mano climax of the movie and whether we bought the idea of 68 year-old Denzel Washington.
• (48:04) We compare Highest 2 Lowest’s conclusion unfavorably to Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, in particular the latter’s critique of capitalism and social stratification which is missing from Spike Lee’s movie and seems to be replaced by ideas that resemble prosperity gospel.
• (58:40) Benji provides the plot summary of High and Low, including a breakdown of a three minute scene to begin the third act. We then provide our reasons for finding Highest 2 Lowest disappointing, especially when compared to High and Low. Finally, Luke and Inga talk about a movie they’d like to see involving A$AP Rocky’s character, Yung Felon, before Benji concludes the podcast with a few movie recommendations.

Highest 2 Lowest

Director: Spike Lee

Starring: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky

Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique

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Thank you to Mitch Davis for the artwork and Lucid Terminal for the theme song.