{"id":7419,"date":"2025-05-22T20:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T20:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/screening-at-cannes-spike-lees-highest-2-lowest\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T20:44:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T20:44:39","slug":"screening-at-cannes-spike-lees-highest-2-lowest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/screening-at-cannes-spike-lees-highest-2-lowest\/","title":{"rendered":"Screening at Cannes: Spike Lee\u2019s \u2018Highest 2 Lowest\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spike Lee, A$AP Rocky and Denzel Washington at the Highest 2 Lowest<\/em> premiere during the 78th Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2025 in Cannes, France. Michael Buckner\/Variety via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cKnicks! Knicks! Knicks!\u201d yelled Spike Lee<\/a> to the glitterati of Cannes as he entered the black-tie Lumi\u00e8re screening for his latest film, the kidnapping thriller Highest 2 Lowest<\/em>. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals was the following night\u2014his beloved team facing off against the Indianapolis Pacers at Madison Square Garden\u2014so Lee had basketball on his mind, rolling up on the Croisette in an orange-and-blue pinstripe zoot suit, sporting a blue felt hat ribboned with orange along with blue eyeglasses rimmed with orange highlights.<\/p>\n

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Denzel Washington<\/a>, the film\u2019s star, wore a more sober black suit and looked a bit less cavalier on the red carpet. He had just flown in from New York a few hours earlier and had to boomerang right back to the airport once the film started. Still in the thick of his sold-out run as Othello on Broadway<\/a>, Washington had no time to spare, so the Cannes Film Festival deliberately programmed the movie on a Monday, the one night when Broadway is dark.<\/p>\n

Washington didn\u2019t have time to stick around and watch Lee\u2019s swaggering Gotham update of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s classic nail-biter\u00a0High and Low<\/em>. But, once everyone was seated, he did stay long enough for the festival\u2019s president Iris Knobloch and general delegate Thierry Fr\u00e9maux to award a surprise honorary Palme d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause, Denzel, you are here,\u201d announced Fr\u00e9maux from the stage. \u201cWe want to make something special for you. A gift!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA bag of money?\u201d Washington cracked under his breath to Lee as they sat in their seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cA way to show our admiration,\u201d replied Fr\u00e9maux with a laugh.<\/p>\n

After the festival played a tribute reel with highlights from his most acclaimed performances\u2014including clips from his two Academy Award-winning turns in\u00a0Glory<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Training Day<\/em>, as well as his four previous collaborations with Lee (Mo\u2019 Better Blues<\/em>,\u00a0Malcolm X<\/em>,\u00a0He Got Game<\/em>, and\u00a0Inside Man<\/em>), Lee and Washington joined Fr\u00e9maux for the presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my brother, right here!\u201d said Lee. \u201cI love him, I love him, and I\u2019m glad you\u2019re here for all the people who love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Spike Lee on stage with Denzel Washington, after receiving an honorary Palme d\u2019Or at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2025 in Cannes, France. Sameer Al-Doumy\/Pool\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington, who hadn\u2019t been to Cannes since his first visit in 1993 with Kenneth Branagh\u2019s all-star\u00a0Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>, was a bit stunned by the unexpected accolade and the audience\u2019s extended standing ovation. \u201cThis is a total surprise for me, so I\u2019m a little emotional,\u201d he said. \u2018It\u2019s a great opportunity to collaborate with my brother-from-another-mother Spike. We\u2019re a very privileged crowd in this room\u2014that we get to make movies and wear tuxedos and get dressed up and paid for it as well. We\u2019re blessed beyond measure. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThierry did a sneak attack!\u201d said Lee during a panel interview at the American Pavillion the next day. \u201cIt was a secret. This was on the low-low. I asked Denzel, \u2018You gonna put it on the shelf between your two Oscars?\u2019 And eight shows a week of doing\u00a0Othello<\/em>\u2014that ain\u2019t no joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lee was more tickled at the synchronicity of the previous night\u2019s timing, since\u00a0Highest 2 Lowest<\/em>\u00a0premiered on the same day, and in the very same theater, as\u00a0Do the Right Thing<\/em>\u00a0in 1989. And May 19 was also the 100th<\/sup>birthday of Malcolm X. \u201cJust put that together!\u201d said Lee. \u201cIt\u2019s numerology. Things. Line. Up. That\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

A remake of\u00a0High and Low<\/em> had been knocking around for decades\u2014certainly since 1999, when, during Cannes, the trades announced that Martin Scorsese was in talks to put together a version that David Mamet was planning to write and direct, potentially starring Steve Martin, William H. Macy and Joe Mantegna.<\/p>\n

But it was Lee and Washington who finally got it made. As Washington\u2019s music producer character David King says in the opening minutes of\u00a0Highest 2 Lowest<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s not a risk. It\u2019s a rebirth.\u201d That bravado is also an apt summary for Lee\u2019s brassy update, his most commercial movie since 2006\u2019s\u00a0Inside Man<\/em>\u00a0(not coincidentally his last Washington collaboration) and a powerful showcase for the actor\u2019s skills.<\/p>\n

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Denzel Washington in Spike Lee\u2019s Highest 2 Lowest. David Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

King, the embattled head of once-great record label Stackin\u2019 Hits, had cashed out a controlling interest to enjoy his success. But now outside investor Stray Dogs Enterprises wants to pay handsomely to control 100% of Stackin\u2019 Hits\u2019 roster of legacy artists for commercial-licensing revenue. \u201cThey\u2019ll squeeze out every drop of black culture and integrity,\u201d he sneers at the offer, hatching his own plan: pour every penny of his personal wealth, including mortgaging his penthouse duplex and Sag Harbor house, into a scheme to buy back the company.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s beautiful about\u00a0Highest 2 Lowest<\/em> is how Lee portrays the Black culture King talks about in the character\u2019s posh apartment on Front Street, referred to in the film as the \u201cDUMBO Olympia\u201d of Brooklyn overlooking the East River. King\u2019s walls are covered in priceless paintings and photos by icons like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden and Gordon Parks. \u201cA lot of that stuff is my own art,\u201d said Lee. \u201cWe made copies of it. My wife and I have Beardens, Basquiats. This is a type of Black excellence, you know? It\u2019s inspiring when, in my office and my home, I\u2019m surrounded by great artists and people who I love and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

King\u2019s plans to retake his company get complicated when a kidnapper calls and says he has King\u2019s 17-year-old son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) and wants $17.5 million for his safe return. But then Trey comes home alive; and they all realize the one that got nabbed is actually Trey\u2019s best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), the only child of King\u2019s widowed driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright<\/a>). Does King still pay all the money\u2014and go bankrupt to save another man\u2019s son?<\/p>\n