Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | August 4, 2025
Do The Right Things blew my goddamn mind when I first saw it (and still does). Spike Lee’s third feature film, a masterpiece, was egregiously overlooked by the Academy in favor of Driving Miss Daisy (hashtag never forget). Still, its legacy is sound. It will go down as one of Spike’s best movies if not the best. One of the many things that makes the movie work so well is its use of New York City, particularly Brooklyn, as a character in the film.
I moved to Brooklyn right out of school (where I saw Do The Right Thing for the first time), and it felt like walking onto the film’s set. Lee, who grew up in Brooklyn, represents the borough with aplomb. Part of the reason his representation works so well is that he actually shot there! One of my least favorite things in film is when a movie tries to tell me that Boston, London, or Toronto is actually my favorite city in the world. They’ll show you the Tube and say, “It’s just like the subway, innit?!” No, Clyde, it isn’t!
To quote Spike, when asked if he enjoyed Green Book, having to see other cities subbed in for NYC “[isn’t] my cup of tea.” So, I am thrilled yet unsurprised to see that Spike’s new film, Highest 2 Lowest, looks New York as hell. The film stars longtime Spike collaborator Denzel Washington as a record mogul whose son is kidnapped, sending him on a mission to get him back. It is a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low. The film also stars Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and A$AP Rocky.
The newest trailer for the film, which hits select theaters later this month and Apple TV+ in September, is wildly intense (thanks to Denzel) and wildly charismatic (again, thanks to Denzel). I’m going to say something that may seem a little controversial, but the man has screen presence. He and Wright have fantastic chemistry. The movie, and the greatest city in the world, looks beautiful. I haven’t seen High and Low, so I don’t know what to expect, but I’m excited to pop this on when my kids go to bed and I’ve finished staring at the wall for twenty minutes.
There are no substitutions for Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, or New York City. This trailer makes that abundantly clear.
