The combination of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington feels like one of those Hollywood dream teams that can’t miss. Their latest collaboration — the A24 and Apple Original Films release “Highest 2 Lowest” — marks the fifth time they’ve worked together, and their stylish new two-hour crime drama has also just hit Apple TV+ where it’s now available to stream at home.
For my part, I actually caught the movie on the big screen a couple of weeks ago and am glad I did. If you have to watch something in a theater, it might as well be a low-stakes crime drama that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or distract you with loads of head-spinning set pieces and special effects. Overall, I found Lee’s last outing to be smartly written, well-acted, and filled with plenty of really interesting directing choices (like having a detective at one point lay out a rescue plan directly to you, the viewer, while staring into the camera and thus making you feel immersed in what’s going on).
“Highest 2 Lowest,” which is currently the #1 movie on Apple’s streamer (according to the in-app Top 10 chart), won’t top anyone’s ranking as the best movie of 2025 by the time we get around to picking those — but you ought to watch it anyway, because it’s good enough.
Highest 2 Lowest: Apple’s newest original film
The Rotten Tomatoes scores are a perfect example of what I’m talking about: Not jaw-dropping, but also not terrible (the movie currently has an 88% critics’ score, based on 188 reviews, and an 85% audience score, based on more than 1,000 verified ratings).
What it’s about: Washington plays a hotshot music industry executive with the “best ears in the business.” Part of “Highest 2 Lowest” is about Washington’s music mogul, and how he does business. The other part is a by-the-book crime drama: Bad guy kidnaps somebody, demands an impossible ransom, and Washington has to figure out how to save the kidnappee without anyone getting seriously hurt. Oh, and this being a Spike Lee movie, “Highest 2 Lowest” also doubles as a love letter of sorts to Lee’s beloved Big Apple, with a trainful of New Yorkers at one point even engaged in a rousing chant of “Boston sucks!” which one of them proceeds to yell directly at the camera.
“With Washington the centre of everything,” opines a review for The Financial Times, “the flow of scenes feels like tracks on a solo album — this one strutting, this one sombre, this one a rap battle.” I can’t say I disagree. Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” very much unfolds with that kind of restless energy, a film that plays out less like a straight narrative and more like a mixtape stitched together from the pulse of a city that never sleeps — taking viewers from the high-rise where Washington’s “King David” reigns supreme to the subway stops, neighborhood block parties, and even the gritty neighborhood recording studio where artists dream of a life less ordinary.
