‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Is The First Great A$AP Rocky Film

When news broke that Spike Lee was remaking Akira Kurosawa’s crime classic High and Low, you’d be forgiven for feeling at least a little nervous. The director’s track record when it comes to reinterpreting beloved cinema is far from stellar: his 2013 take on Park Chan-wook’s cult classic Oldboy was less a reimagining and more a greatest-hits highlight reel that failed to capture the exhilarating yet queasy spirit of Park’s film. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, a remake of the 1973 horror Ganja & Hess, was also met with a frosty reception. The first hour of Highest 2 Lowest, which premiered yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival, would have you believe those fears are justified—it begins as a strangely flat crime drama that feels like Lee working on autopilot, until it really comes alive and stands on its own. And when Highest 2 Lowest does rise to greatness, it’s not because of Denzel Washington—it’s because of A$AP Rocky.

Not that Washington isn’t a commanding presence. That’s a given. He plays David King, head of Stackin’ Hits Records, an ailing label years past its prime and on the verge of a sale to a conglomerate. When his driver’s son is kidnapped from basketball camp after the culprit mistakes him for David’s own son, the mogul is forced to consider coughing up millions to pay the ransom. Lee has switched out the shoe business in Kurosawa’s original for the music industry here, and it’s fertile ground for sharp observations about art and commerce in the Spotify era. There are debates around cancel culture and social-media clout, and many of those heady, topical ideas are filtered through Rocky’s Yung Felon, an underground rapper who intends to be noticed by his idol by any means necessary.

Highest 2 Lowest truly kicks into gear when Rocky enters the picture. Both funny and invigorating, his performance injects the film with a propulsive energy when it needs it most. He arrives in an exhilarating subway chase sequence in which he wobbles on top of the 4 train—a thief with an abundance of ambition and none of the skill. David’s worried about technology and AI encroaching on artistic integrity, and Yung Felon is all of his worst fears realized. Attention, the rapper argues, is the most valuable form of currency—but what’s music without artistry? Their confrontation culminates in an impromptu rap battle: Washington delivers his rhymes with Shakespearean gravitas, but Rocky proves an effective foil, lacing his verses with frustration and anger at a world that refuses to hear him.

Not many actors can say they’ve gone up against Denzel Washington and put up a good fight. Rocky is now one of them. At the film’s press conference, Lee suggested that his latest collaboration with Washington could be his last. “I think this is it: five,” the director said. “He’s just been talking about retirement, even though he’s just done another deal. Five films together, they stand up.” Washington will always be one of Lee’s greatest creative partners—but perhaps Rocky has the potential to be the next one.