Director Spike Lee (left) and Denzel Washington arrive at a special screening of "Highest 2 Lowest" on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” is the fifth collaboration between the director, among the greatest of my generation, alongside Denzel Washington, another giant in the film industry. It’s fitting, as their latest has both the filmmaker and actor reflecting on their legacies, as well as the dangers of making money a greater priority than making art.

Washington stars as David King, a Quincy Jones-like music mogul, managing a tricky, headline grabbing business merger, when his son’s best friend is kidnapped. Will King dish out the $17.5 million ransom and save the offspring of his assistant (played by Geoffrey Wright)?

The screenplay (credited to Alan Fox but clearly with Lee’s fingerprints all over it) is based on Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” (1963), which Lee uses as a jumping off point but doesn’t seem entirely invested in. This is disappointing, as the kidnapping plot, which should be unbearably tense, is functional, while the portrayal of King’s stature in the music industry and how it affects his family life, is far more compelling. Like Lee’s “She Hate Me” (2004), where the sensational central plot of a modern gigolo is nowhere near as compelling as the Enron-like corporate drama going on as the B plot, “Highest 2 Lowest” lacks edge as a thriller but still grabs us because it has so much to say that’s worth hearing.

Shot in Brooklyn and centering mostly around King’s extraordinary high rise apartment, which provides a God-like view of New York City, Lee’s film explores and celebrates The Big Apple, though it sometimes undermines the mounting tension. There’s a chase taking place through the Puerto Rican Day celebration where the illogical details of the villain’s diversion (dropping a backpack with millions of dollars from a moving subway car can’t be this easy) take a backseat to the music and Rosie Perez appearing as herself.

Another big problem here is the obtrusive score by Howard Drossin, creating soft Muzak during scenes that would have been suspenseful without orchestration. Far better are the needle drops, like the perfect use of James Brown’s “The Payback” and the soaring title song by Aiyana-lee.

From start to finish, Washington is electric and Lee’s gifts as a storyteller and filmmaker (note the sharpness of the edits and how good looking the cinematography is) are in full view.

Washington is 70 years old, and Lee is 68. I mention this because they’re both fathers, artists and role models, which figures greatly in Lee’s latest “joint.”

“Highest 2 Lowest” explores the hit-makers, their views on the world today and the value of hard work and good character. It’s also a movie littered with groaner dad jokes (“Is Al green? Is Barry white? Does Stevie wonder?”) and obvious in-jokes, like throwing shade at the Boston Celtics and providing a tribute to the film’s distributor, A24. (The bad guy’s apartment number is A24. Clever, Spike).

At 133 minutes, it’s overstuffed and self-indulgent in spots, but like all of Lee’s films, worth seeing and possessing at least a handful of knockout moments. Here, it’s Washington’s third-act encounters with the kidnapper. Without giving anything away, the role is played by newcomer ASAP Rocky, who is visibly unafraid to go toe-to-toe with a heavyweight.

Through King, Lee and Washington vocally dismiss AI and give validation to art and work that is made by those with flesh and blood. A point is also made that online attention is a form of currency that can easily go the wrong way. The enormous privilege King and his family have in their literal castle in the sky is contrasted to the slow pan of the kidnapping victim, alone and tied up in a bathtub. Although action has rarely been Lee’s strongpoint, the vocal and physical confrontations of the climactic scenes are satisfying.

See “Highest 2 Lowest” for its reflection on the contemporary music world and two legends who can still make great cinema together. Lee and Washington’s latest (and hopefully not their last) is nowhere near the level of their “Malcolm X” (1992), but it has more on its mind than most 2025 movies.

(3 out of 4 stars)

Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawai’i Maui College.