Highest 2 Lowest
A24 | Release Date: August 15, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 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
100
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonAug 12, 2025
This is one of the year’s best films. It’s also one of Lee’s finest joints. Read full review
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerAug 14, 2025
A rich feast for cinephiles, filled with love for the craft that makes movies like this possible. Read full review
90
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaMay 22, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest features an enormously theatrical Denzel Washington and the kind of wild tonal swings only Spike Lee can manage. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 20, 2025
It’s smart, hugely entertaining, and profound in a way that’s anything but sentimental. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 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
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 19, 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
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 19, 2025
The director is in the role of the flashy, panache-y showman here, and he plays it to perfection, delivering a big, highly polished chunk of movie that’s pure enjoyment. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 30, 2025
A mashup of Macbeth and the biblical chronicles of King David, all set in contemporary New York City, Highest 2 Lowest sees Spike Lee playing with classical narratives in order to explore a modern man’s artistic reawakening. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsMay 20, 2025
Similar to Lee’s public persona, “Highest 2 Lowest” is a chaos agent of a movie, the kind of lavish, unpredictable crime thriller that zips when you expect it to zoom. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 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
80
Film ThreatBradley GibsonAug 22, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest is brilliant filmmaking done as only Spike Lee can. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 20, 2025
Denzel Washington’s unshakeable gravitas anchors a dazzling, jazzy riff on the crime drama that somehow feels wildly uplifting for all its grit. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 14, 2025
Washington’s most successfully sustained sparring partner is Jeffrey Wright, who plays Paul, the family’s chauffeur. He comes into focus through his beliefs, his attire and salient details (including a banner for the Five Percenters, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam), though primarily through Wright’s discreet, moving performance. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 13, 2025
When Lee puts Washington in just the right scene, with just the right power dynamics and just the right nerve-rattling dialogue, the result is a thing of high art. Forget the film’s initial low points – just keep aiming toward the top. And keep watching King David’s throne. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMay 22, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest is an old man’s movie, and I don’t mean that as a criticism. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 19, 2025
This is a big, muscular picture which aspires to the crowd-pleasing athleticism of Spike Lee’s sports icons; it’s very enjoyable and there’s a great turn from Washington. Read full review
79
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerAug 13, 2025
It’s a movie that sometimes feels obsessed with music, and sometimes feels like an old man flipping back to his preferred, familiar playlist. Read full review
75
The Daily BeastEsther ZuckermanSep 9, 2025
The movie’s secret weapon, in many ways, is not Washington but rather A$AP Rocky, who emerges in the second half to give a performance so fun it’s easy to anoint him the next big movie star. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 28, 2025
It’s a movie that gleefully kicks its characters out of their comfy environs to plunge them into New York’s rattling, noisy crowds—and it’s worth watching with the biggest audience you can find. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 14, 2025
A model of conventional thriller suspense, the movie isn’t. A stimulating cry for “Black culture and artistic integrity,” in King’s words, and for the true value of a well-made commodity, whether it’s shoes or songs — that, the movie surely is. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrAug 14, 2025
Lee has kept the bones of McBain’s and Kurosawa’s versions, but he’s made his own movie, occasionally for worse but mostly for better. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 14, 2025
Although they haven’t collaborated in a while, this teaming of old friends Lee and Washington soars once it gets cooking. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 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
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerAug 27, 2025
Washington and Rocky’s scenes are flat-out electric. Even when they’re just talking over the phone, there’s an intensity to their scenes sorely lacking from everything that precedes them. In fact, Rocky brings so much passion to his scenes that Washington actually has to level up his own game up to keep pace. The pair’s confrontations prove to be Highest 2 Lowest’s high points. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 15, 2025
Washington delivers the dialogue with a thrilling range from purrs to roars, all imbued with an authoritative swagger. In the few moments when his swagger falters, he nearly rends the screen with anguish. Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 14, 2025
Whatever the flaws in Lee's remake design, Highest 2 Lowest rises above its issues thanks to the filmmaker's inherent skill and Washington's unbeatable charisma. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 14, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest has its highs and lows, and when the highs are high, it soars. Those pesky lows are certainly hard to shake though. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesAug 14, 2025
Its title notwithstanding, the fascinating, frustrating Highest 2 Lowest ends up somewhere in the middle. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensAug 14, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest moves with a swagger and self-confidence that perhaps oversells what the script actually has to offer, but it’s hard to resist the draw of seeing Lee and Washington collaborate for the first time since Inside Man in 2006. Read full review
70
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 13, 2025
Confirms that Washington is rarely more alive than when in front of Lee’s lens. Eighteen years after their last collaboration, the two continue to bring out the best in each other—no matter that, in this case, Lee perhaps goes a tad overboard on his end. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 20, 2025
It’s half mess, half triumph, and thrilling even in its failures. Read full review
70
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannMay 20, 2025
It’s less challenging and possibly less rewarding but it’s no less fun. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 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
70
ColliderTherese LacsonMay 20, 2025
While it's far from Lee's best, Highest 2 Lowest is an entertaining watch, and for lovers of Denzel Washington, it's a must-see. Read full review
67
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 14, 2025
There’s life in Highest 2 Lowest, but I didn’t feel much of it. David King is meant to be a man driven by his passions, for music and for himself, his legacy and perhaps his family. I could see that and understood that, but I didn’t feel much of it. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 14, 2025
Lee makes the material his own, for better and for worse. Read full review
67
The Film StageLuke HicksMay 22, 2025
The duo is responsible for one of cinema’s greatest cinematic achievements, Malcolm X, while the other three would have a fighting chance at most directors’ best. If Highest 2 Lowest falls on the lower end of their partnership, the sparks of brilliance they’ve found in the past will flare up multiple times. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 6, 2025
Washington gives one of his great performances as King, a man comfortable swinging between two worlds with diverging ways of thinking and even talking. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrAug 13, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest may not reach the heights of some of Lee’s best films, but it’s the kind of film that makes you hope Lee and Washington have more to make together. Read full review
60
NMELou ThomasMay 22, 2025
Highest 2 Lowest’s action moves with pace and the dialogue is full of the rhymes and hilarious street slang Lee typically peppers his films with. However, it doesn’t feel shot and cut with his usual vitality. Read full review
60
The TimesEd PottonMay 20, 2025
Sometimes, a couple of scenes can make all the difference. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 19, 2025
Ultimately, the picture’s energetic swirl comes across as slightly hollow, its barrage of themes and impulses never finding harmony. Read full review
60
The IndependentGeoffrey MacnabMay 19, 2025
If everything seems familiar from countless other crime dramas, at least the film is very slickly and creatively directed by Lee. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSeth KatzAug 12, 2025
The more the film diverges from Kurosawa’s, the more confident and distinguished it becomes. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 5, 2025
The film is never boring, but, once that delightful opening winds down, the action clunks where it should purr. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdoñaAug 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
More From This Movie

74 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL