‘Highest 2 Lowest’ overview: Spike Lee swings between tonal extremes

From the opening moments of “Highest 2 Lowest,” Spike Lee’s remix-as-remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller “Excessive and Low,” it’s best to know that the filmmaker is right here primarily for a great time and he’s asking us to play alongside.

Over aerial pictures of the solar hitting the New York Metropolis skyline, together with the beautiful Olympia constructing looming over Brooklyn, Lee layers “Oh, What a Stunning Mornin’,” the opening track from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!,” a jarring, cheeky selection that jolts us out of what we would assume a Spike Lee Kurosawa remake is meant to be.

The Japanese auteur has lengthy been a serious affect on Lee, and when the script for “Highest 2 Lowest” (by Alan Fox), which had been in growth with different filmmakers, got here his manner, Lee made it his personal. He additionally solid longtime collaborator Denzel Washington, an apt pairing. Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune; Lee has Washington. (It’s their fifth movie collectively.)

This all sounds nice on paper, however what finally ends up on display screen is a confusingly blended bag. Kurosawa’s “Excessive and Low” was primarily based on the 1959 Ed McBain cop novel “King’s Ransom,” a few ethical dilemma that turns into an id disaster for a rich man. Transporting the motion to Japan’s post-World Struggle II financial increase, Kurosawa examined class variations within the nation. Although Lee makes use of the textual content to touch upon the haves and have-nots too, his focus is skilled on the twenty first century consideration economic system dictated by the social media hordes.

Once we choose up with David King (Washington) on the balcony of his Olympia penthouse, he is aware of {that a} change goes to come back this lovely morning. A celebrity music mogul, King is conscious that his firm, Stackin’ Hits, is about to be offered out from below him. Secretly, he’s set a plan in movement to orchestrate a leveraged buyout and take management of the sale. However when he receives a name that his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been snatched off the road and the abductors are demanding $17.5 million, his scheme to save lots of his firm goes up in smoke.

However then, Trey exhibits up. Because it occurs, the abductors have mistakenly taken his son’s finest pal, Kyle (Elijah Wright), the kid of David’s longtime confidant and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), a religious Muslim wealthy in avenue smarts however not cash. David’s private aid is lower brief when he has to resolve if he’s going to pay the ransom and save his finest pal’s child — and his face, contemplating the media scrutiny — or comply with his dream and save his firm.

“Highest 2 Lowest” mimics the excessive and low bisection of Kurosawa’s movie, with the primary hour set within the moneyed confines of the Kings’ luxe condominium, laden with priceless African American up to date artwork. As cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s digital camera lingers over the Basquiat and Kehinde Wiley work, one would possibly marvel why he doesn’t simply promote a number of to treatment his cash issues.

The primary hour of “Highest 2 Lowest” is extra baffling than anything. The fluid long-take cinematography by Libatique is impeccable, however with a melodramatic tone courtesy of a distracting, over-the-top rating by Howard Drossin and weak performances from the supporting solid, it feels extra like a Tyler Perry film than a Spike Lee joint.

However then, liberation: The movie hits the streets and Lee unfolds a fully chic piece of kinetic New York Metropolis filmmaking, a chase scene with a subway automotive filled with Yankees followers chanting their anti-Boston sentiments intercut with a Puerto Rican Day Parade efficiency by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. Lastly, we’re cooking with fuel. It’s among the finest sequences of the 12 months.

David and Paul take issues into their very own arms whereas looking for Kyle’s kidnapper, who seems to be an aspiring rapper named Yung Felon (a wonderful ASAP Rocky). Washington and Rocky face off in two electrical scenes within the again half of the film, each instances separated by glass: a recording sales space and a jail visitation. Rocky capably steps as much as Washington’s unfastened however intense actorly movement and contributes an awesome track to the soundtrack too.

Washington is unsurprisingly mesmerizing, improvising small gestures and throwaway traces. However there’s nonetheless a component of camp and goofy humor that lingers, taking away from the script’s leaner, meaner components. Generously, one would possibly interpret this as a Brechtian nod towards the movie’s artifice as an arch and realizing remake laden with references. However that retains us at a distance from the emotional actuality of those characters. When Lee brings the whole lot house with a message about creating actual artwork from the center and the accountability of stewarding Black tradition, it’s a bit too late to take it severely.

“Highest 2 Lowest” has its highs and lows, and when the highs are excessive, it soars. These pesky lows are definitely laborious to shake although.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune Information Service movie critic.