Ep. 325: Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest

Claire and Gavia share clashing opinions on Spike Lee's new crime thriller Highest 2 Lowest, starring Denzel Washington as a music mogul who faces financial ruin after his son is kidnapped and held to ransom. Among other topics, this episode covers the film’s role as a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, its bewilderingly terrible orchestral score, and what we can glean about Lee’s directorial voice as he nears his seventies.

Our next episode will be a review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s much-hyped satirical action thriller One Battle After Another. Meanwhile on Patreon, Morgan and Gavia recently posted two new episodes: A review of Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant 1940s drama Shadow of a Doubt, and a conversation about the 2025 Emmy Awards, which doubled as a belated review of The Pitt and Severance season 2.

Links:

"Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest rages against the new but leaves him looking too old," Andrew Lawrence, The Guardian

Highest 2 Lowest review, Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

"Spike Lee on Highest 2 Lowest, Timothée Chalamet, And The Pitfalls Of AI," Lyvie Scott, Inverse

"Denzel Washington and Spike Lee on Streaming, Retirement, and Their Decades-Long Bond," David Canfield, Vanity Fair

Previously: Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods