Reuniting with his longtime leading man Denzel Washington and remaking an Akira Kurosawa crime classic, Lee captures energy and moral complexity, sometimes wildly.

A loosey-goosey remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 classic "High and Low," the film stars Washington as a music business mogul orchestrating a bid to buy back his label until he gets a call from a kidnapper who claims to have abducted his son,

Denzel Washington and New York City vie for the spotlight in Highest 2 Lowest, and in the final tally, the two battle to a draw. Spike Lee’s latest joint—in theaters Aug. 15 on Apple TV+ Sept. 5—is equally awestruck by its leading man and its metropolitan setting,