Highest 2 Lowest

Name: Highest 2 Lowest
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Released: August 15, 2025
Duration: 133 min
Rating: 74

2025

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Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

A24 | Release Date: August 15, 2025 | R

Summary: When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business”, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 133 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Soren Andersen

Sep 2, 2025

Both star and director are at the top of their game here, and that’s as good as movies get. Read full review

Peter Debruge

May 20, 2025

In the end, Lee has taken “High and Low” to new highs, delivering a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while also sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed. Read full review

The Playlist Gregory Ellwood

May 19, 2025

It’s no shame that this thriller isn’t even in the top pantheon of Lee joints, as he refers to them. The man has some masterpieces on his resume. It might be in Washington’s, however. He’s so viscerally engaging that you want to see the movie again just to enjoy his performance. Read full review

IndieWire David Ehrlich

May 19, 2025

Titled like a sequel, plotted like a remake, and shot with enough of its own singular verve to ensure that most people never think of it as either of those things, Spike Lee’s deliriously entertaining — if jarringly upbeat — Highest 2 Lowest modernizes the post-war anxieties of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” for the age of parasocial relationships. Read full review

Zachary Barnes

Aug 14, 2025

Its title notwithstanding, the fascinating, frustrating Highest 2 Lowest ends up somewhere in the middle. Read full review

David Fear

May 20, 2025

The impression is that you’ve just seen a great New York movie, with a great star turn at the core of it, and yet still feels like something’s missing. It’s ultimately an excuse to watch Washington go HAM. Read full review

Michael Ordoña

Aug 14, 2025

The movie doesn’t just suffer by comparison to “High and Low” (itself adapted from Evan Hunter’s novel “King’s Ransom”); taken by itself, its pace drags, its tone staggers and its ideas are muddled. Read full review

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