# Highest 2 Lowest
**Highest 2 Lowest** is a 2025 American crime thriller directed by [Spike Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/spike-lee), a contemporary New York City reinterpretation of [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa)'s 1963 film *High and Low*, starring [Denzel Washington](https://www.edgepedia.org/denzel-washington) as a music mogul targeted by a ransom plot.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) It premiered Out of Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, opened in United States theaters on August 15, 2025, and began streaming on Apple TV+ on September 5, 2025.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) • [3](https://www.cloudspress.com/highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release-apple-tv-streaming-dates/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Spike Lee; screenplay by Alan Fox[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) |
| Source | Reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's *High and Low* (1963), itself adapted from Ed McBain's 1959 novel *King's Ransom*[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) • [4](https://www.thebeacher.com/2025/ewExternalFiles/BeacherSep18.pdf) |
| Lead cast | Denzel Washington (David King), Jeffrey Wright (Paul Christopher), Ilfenesh Hadera (Pam King), A$AP Rocky (Yung Felon)[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) |
| Release | Cannes premiere May 2025 (Out of Competition); theaters August 15, 2025; Apple TV+ September 5, 2025[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) • [3](https://www.cloudspress.com/highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release-apple-tv-streaming-dates/) |
| Runtime / rating | 133 minutes; rated R for language throughout and brief drug use[5](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/highest-2-lowest) • [6](https://greenelibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S118C1347749) |
| Critical scores | Metacritic Metascore 74 (47 reviews); Rotten Tomatoes 83% Tomatometer from 234 reviews[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31194612/criticreviews/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/highest_2_lowest) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
David King (Denzel Washington) is a legendary music producer and head of the label Stackin' Hits, renowned for having "the best ears in the business." He lives in a penthouse overlooking the [Brooklyn Bridge](https://www.edgepedia.org/brooklyn-bridge) with his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), and is plotting a comeback by reclaiming shareholder control of his company.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) Five years earlier he sold a controlling interest in the label, which is about to pass to a holding company he fears will strip it for parts, dispersing the archive of Black music he built there; his planned buyback puts up the family's entire fortune.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review)
On the eve of the deal, a caller claiming to have kidnapped Trey demands a ransom of $17.5 million. The kidnapper has in fact mistakenly snatched Kyle, the son of King's oldest friend and chauffeur Paul ([Jeffrey Wright](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeffrey-wright)), forcing King into a moral quandary: whether to face financial ruin to save his friend's son.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-08-06/spike-lee-highest-2-lowest-denzel-washington) As in Kurosawa's film, the two boys had swapped clothes, leading the kidnapper to take the chauffeur's son rather than the mogul's.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review) King initially refuses to pay, but friendship and worry about bad publicity impel him to go ahead.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review)
The kidnapper is revealed as Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky), a wannabe rapper King had previously turned down for a record deal.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) • [11](https://time.com/7311030/highest-2-lowest-ending-spike-lee/) In the second half, David pursues justice on the streets where he was raised, in set pieces staged amid throngs of sports fans and parade-goers.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/)
## Relationship to High and Low
Lee consistently describes the film as a reinterpretation rather than a remake of Kurosawa's *High and Low*, which moved Kurosawa's postwar-Tokyo setting, centered on a shoe-company executive, to the contemporary New York music industry.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) "There's a history of jazz musicians doing reinterpretations of standards," Lee told the Los Angeles Times. "We're jazz musicians in front of and behind the camera."[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-08-06/spike-lee-highest-2-lowest-denzel-washington) He also noted that Kurosawa's film was itself an adaptation, and said the Kurosawa family gave the project its blessing.[12](https://whenthingsgopop.com/2025/09/06/interview-with-spike-lee/)
[The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) critic Richard Brody, a longtime film critic for the magazine, identified the sharpest divergence from Kurosawa in the second half: in *High and Low*, catching the kidnapper after the ransom is paid is a police matter, an intricate mass mobilization, while in Lee's version David himself dominates the hunt, and the culprit turns out to be someone in his professional field.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review)
The title's numeral carries a personal reference: Lee said the "2" in place of "to" was a shout-out to Prince, who habitually substituted numbers for words.[12](https://whenthingsgopop.com/2025/09/06/interview-with-spike-lee/)
## Production and release
Washington was already attached to the project and brought the script to Lee; the director recalled receiving it by FedEx from the actor and committing soon after.[13](https://www.dga.org/Events/2025/October2025/Highest2Lowest_QnA_0825) The film marked the fifth Lee-Washington collaboration and their first together in 19 years, after 2006's *Inside Man*; their earlier films together include *Mo' Better Blues* (1990), *Malcolm X* (1992), and *He Got Game*.[11](https://time.com/7311030/highest-2-lowest-ending-spike-lee/) • [14](https://www.thewrap.com/denzel-washington-spike-lee-discuss-highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release/)
The film was produced by 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Escape Artists, and Mandalay Pictures, with Apple Original Films as distributor.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) Matthew Libatique served as cinematographer and Howard Drossin composed the score.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/) Both Lee and Washington publicly urged audiences to see it in theaters despite its limited theatrical rollout, which Washington and Lee acknowledged was enabled by Apple's involvement.[14](https://www.thewrap.com/denzel-washington-spike-lee-discuss-highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release/) The theatrical release, handled by A24, was moved up one week from an initially reported August 22 date to August 15, 2025, with the Apple TV+ debut following 21 days later.[3](https://www.cloudspress.com/highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release-apple-tv-streaming-dates/) At Cannes the film earned a six-minute standing ovation.[15](https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a65790845/how-to-watch-highest-2-lowest-streaming/)
## Themes and reception
Lee framed the film as a portrait of Black affluence and power: David's apartment displays works by [Jean-Michel Basquiat](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-michel-basquiat), Romare Bearden, and [Kehinde Wiley](https://www.edgepedia.org/kehinde-wiley), Pam sits on the board of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and David drives a Rolls-Royce.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/) Brody read the film as a story of culture flowing in both directions between the highest and lowest echelons of society, and as a film about Lee's own modes of production and the notion of owning the means of production.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review) [The Atlantic](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-atlantic)'s David Sims saw the film as partly self-aware satire, casting Lee's defining creative partner as a venerated tastemaker at risk of going stale, and noted that the story broadly retains *High and Low*'s structure and hook.[16](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/08/highest-2-lowest-movie-review/683910/)
Critical response was broadly positive but divided on tone. The film holds a Metascore of 74 and an 83% Tomatometer; [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) and Variety scored it 90, while The Independent and Screen Daily scored it 60, the latter finding its "energetic swirl" slightly hollow.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31194612/criticreviews/) The Associated Press review found that the film "really sings" once it leaves the high rises and puts its feet on the New York pavement.[17](https://apnews.com/article/68b54daba9202e637a57cc817ef167bb) Audience scores ran lower than critics' scores, with an IMDb rating of 5.5 from about 36,000 users against the 83% Rotten Tomatoes critics' average.[5](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/highest-2-lowest)
## References
1. [Spike Lee on Highest 2 Lowest, Film Comment (Beatrice Loayza)](https://www.filmcomment.com/interview-spike-lee-on-highest-2-lowest/)
2. [HIGHEST 2 LOWEST, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/highest-2-lowest/)
3. [Highest 2 Lowest: Theatrical Release & Apple TV+ Streaming Dates, CloudsPress](https://www.cloudspress.com/highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release-apple-tv-streaming-dates/)
4. [The Beacher, September 18, 2025 edition](https://www.thebeacher.com/2025/ewExternalFiles/BeacherSep18.pdf)
5. [Highest 2 Lowest streaming: where to watch online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/highest-2-lowest)
6. [Highest 2 Lowest, Greene County Public Library (BiblioCommons)](https://greenelibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S118C1347749)
7. [Highest 2 Lowest (2025) - Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31194612/criticreviews/)
8. [Highest 2 Lowest, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/highest_2_lowest)
9. ["Highest 2 Lowest" Marks a Conservative Pivot for Spike Lee, The New Yorker (Richard Brody)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/highest-2-lowest-movie-review)
10. [Spike Lee on playing the long game with 'Highest 2 Lowest', Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-08-06/spike-lee-highest-2-lowest-denzel-washington)
11. [Spike Lee Breaks Down the Emotional Ending of Highest 2 Lowest, TIME](https://time.com/7311030/highest-2-lowest-ending-spike-lee/)
12. [INTERVIEW: Spike Lee on 'Highest 2 Lowest,' When Things Go Pop](https://whenthingsgopop.com/2025/09/06/interview-with-spike-lee/)
13. [Director Spike Lee discusses Highest 2 Lowest, Directors Guild of America](https://www.dga.org/Events/2025/October2025/Highest2Lowest_QnA_0825)
14. [Denzel Washington, Spike Lee Couldn't Have Made 'Highest 2 Lowest' Without Apple Streaming Deal, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/denzel-washington-spike-lee-discuss-highest-2-lowest-theatrical-release/)
15. [A Streaming Guide to Highest 2 Lowest, ELLE](https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a65790845/how-to-watch-highest-2-lowest-streaming/)
16. [Spike Lee’s Self-Aware Brooklyn Satire, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/08/highest-2-lowest-movie-review/683910/)
17. [Movie Review: Spike Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest' finds its groove in New York's streets, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/68b54daba9202e637a57cc817ef167bb)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2025–2026 films › Crime, heist, and gangster films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license