Spike Lee’s New Joint, ‘Highest 2 Lowest,’ Is Mid

Denzel Washington does his thing, and A$AP Rocky holds his own, but the film is all flash and no substance with very little to say.

Aug 17, 2025

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Spike Lee’s latest joint, Highest 2 Lowest, puts a 2025 Black male spin on the 1963 Akira Kurosawa classic police procedural High and Low. In both films, when a poor man tries to even the scales by kidnapping who he mistakenly believes is the wealthy man’s son, the wealthy man must weigh losing everything he has to …

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A guest post by

Brooke Obie

Black Girl Watching is a film/TV & culture critique platform analyzing the latest in culture through a Black feminist lens by Brooke Obie. Brooke is an award-winning film critic, filmmaker, screenwriter and author of BOOK OF ADDIS.