Spike Lee’s latest feature, Highest 2 Lowest, is poised to hit the big screen this August, bringing Denzel Washington back into the kind of heavyweight role he wears like armor. The first teaser dropped this week, setting the tone for a slick, high-stakes thriller rooted in the grit of New York.
Washington plays a titan of the music industry—charismatic, calculating, and walking the razor’s edge between power and principle. As the voiceover warns in the teaser, “All money ain’t good money.” That message echoes through a montage of tension, flashing lights, and looming consequences. Cue A$AP Rocky, cast as Yung Felon, possibly his onscreen son, caught in the crosshairs of a kidnapping plot gone sideways.
Loosely inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, itself drawn from Ed McBain’s King’s Ransom, the film retools the classic moral crisis for a modern, fame-obsessed world. This time, it’s not just a child at stake—it’s identity, integrity, and empire. The script comes courtesy of William Alan Fox, while the lensing by Matthew Libatique promises both beauty and bite.
This marks Lee and Washington’s fifth team-up, but their first since Inside Man. “I’m just glad we got five in,” Lee said recently. The collaboration has already drawn praise from industry legends—Martin Scorsese reportedly applauded Washington’s performance after an early screening.
The supporting cast packs a punch too, with appearances from Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and rapper Ice Spice, adding to Lee’s cityscape. While much of the story remains under wraps, Lee teased online that the film draws from memes claiming A$AP Rocky looks like Washington’s son—an internet joke turned plot point.
Highest 2 Lowest premieres out of competition at Cannes on May 19, with a theatrical release from A24 set for August 22 and a streaming drop via Apple TV+ on September 5. Denzel asked one simple question in the teaser—“Can you handle it?” Watch the first teaser below.
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