Art in this piece: Highest 2 Lowest
Available Through: Apple TV+
It’s been a summer of change for me. New places, new faces, and most importantly, a new job. I’m squarely in a counselor chair now. Through a long, winding road of figuring out my own mind and what I could put it to, I ended up with a shot to raise up. I saw a small sliver between opportunity and self-belief, aimed high and true, then cashed that shit. I told my then-future employer that no one would want this as badly as I did and I meant it. I’m a couple of months into this leap, and I’ve been thinking about. what it took. More accurately, I’m thinking about all it took, all the things I’ve done to get all the way here. I’m realizing, that I’m creating some kind of legacy, a paper trail of evidence to success, success that seemed impossible. 10 minutes into Highest 2 Lowest, I felt my mainframe ignite because of my nascent legacy in the shadow of two American giants that would magnanimously dominate the screen.
At a molecular level, Denzel Washington and Spike Lee’s latest collaboration is a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, a film I’ve never watched. That said, I’m aware of its basic plot beats and understand the logical similarities. True to the original source material, H2L is a kidnapping crime thriller. Even without seeing the original movie, it’s still abundantly clear how Spike Lee has disassembled and reconstructed it for his vision. Tip of the hat to The Pogues because H2L is a fairytale of New York.
Yes, the greatest New York Knicks fan in the world has once again set his film in New York. Spike Lee setting a film in New York is a more reliable bet than the sun rising, and he has every right. I can’t think of another filmmaker whose devolution to the big apple runs so deep and anchored in their heart. One of the ways Lee really takes a hold of Kurosawa’s work is by imbuing it with his indelible love of NYC. The sweeping, gorgeous shots of the world’s most iconic city are deeply loving. The film’s eye catches New York with assured benevolence. H2L is glassy-eyed as it lingers on the enduring, grainy splendor of the MTA trains or the everlasting spine of the Brooklyn bridge. Even when the frame is parked, it often glows with the power of New York's nocturnal skyline.
The last “D and Lee” connection was 2006’s Inside Man, another crime thriller which also flattered NY’s curves. This heist movie centered around a bank which served as a nexus of New York’s cultural potpourri. Interactions between the black and white NYPD officers, NY’s Jewish diaspora, black youth, midtown bankers and working class renters elevated the entire movie. This time, H2L inverts things. Spike’s latest takes the story out into New York City proper; this is a movie in motion, on the go and pushing tempo. People are living lives, within themselves, community and transient space. For all the drama of this movie, Spike Lee cinematically encrypts a truism about New York; this city don’t wait for no one and keeps it pushing in spite of it all. The culmination of this colossal movement and melody occurs in the film's capturing of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in the Bronx. Spike Lee celebrates this vibrant, enclave that rolls through New York as the main plot happens around it. In truth, the main plot IS the parade in this moment. Appearances from Rosie Perez and Eddie Palmieri tee up this narrative transition. This scene captures the swimming lifeforce of America's greatest city. Here, a sea of red, white and blue flags take space instead of subjugating and colonizing it. As we stand on the precipice of peak tech mogul AI fellatio (quite literally), Highest 2 Lowest’s unflinching commitment to the vitality of human connection is desperately needed oxygen.
The other massive element of this movie, one that animates and moves it at all levels, is blackness. Standing right beside the speculative AI overgrowth shrouding America is the country's clear decline into fascism. As this sociopolitical moment actively attempts to literally whitewash history, H2L’s multi-layered conversations and mediations on blackness are a raised fist. Denzel Washington (a real-life NY-native himself) plays David King, an unsubtly-named music mogul and hitmaker who is facing the dilemma of honouring his several legacies. In this fictional take on real-ass NY, "King David" stands on the shoulders of black American giants like Ali, Toni Morrison and Basquiat. Here is where Highest 2 Lowest literally sings.
King David was a kid born in the Bronx. He was stuck in the hood until he got his shot, took it, and climbed up (or rather climbed down). Without spoiling too much, this is an important theme mirrored in another other character’s motives. Washington, the greatest black actor of all time, hits this role like a Michael Jordan midrange jumper. His ability to absorb and transmute every frame and feeling into magic is something cinema will miss when he finally hangs it up. At almost 70, Spike Lee has left a legacy that Denzel is not only a part of, but figuratively mirrors in this role. Two black legends are in conversation with each other as director and actor, mirroring each other’s legacies intratextually and extratextually. When faced with a grim choice toward midway through the movie, Denzel turns to a framed portrait of James Brown and pleads with him for advice on what to do. At once, you have Denzel, Spike and James Brown having a conversation through art, time, legacy and space. It is a rare, near-celestial that can only be savoured as a viewer.
With all these layers comes questions living on top of each. What does a black person amount to in a system that will always try to extract us from our work and culture? What is legacy and why do black people ALWAYS have to defend its legitimacy? What is the future of blackness and how does one generation evolve to understand and connect to another? Constantly, this movie sits in the reflection of black royalty and introspects on the immensity of its importance to the very core of American history and culture. Denzel and Spike are surrounded by other load-bearing voices like Jeffrey Wright and Ilfenesh Hadera with excellent roles as Paul and Pam respectfully. These roles are then contrasted by A$AP Rocky’s genuine, timbs-fueled take as Young Felon. These planetary figures ultimately orbit D and Lee, two culture-shifting shining like twin supernovas. And all of this is caught in the cosmos of New York’s bustle.
I went into this movie blind. For months, I knew it was a Spike/Denzel movie and I knew I didn’t need to know anything else. I knew I was going to witness it in theaters asap (...rocky). What I didn’t know is how I would leave the TIFF Lightbox searching into my own core. I didn't know I'd leave thinking about what these giants have given to the black diaspora or what I've truly done by becoming a black therapist. Denzel, Rocky and Spike reach into their hunger and depict how it attacks opportunity. My highest peak never forgets my lowest, hungriest pit. In this way, Highest 2 Lowest isn’t just a celebration of blackness, its an acknowledgment how we will always fight and stay hungry even when we ascend.