A$AP Rocky extorts Denzel Washington in first full trailer for Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest

The film will get a limited release this month before arriving on Apple TV Plus in September.

By Drew Gillis  |  August 4, 2025 | 10:00am
Image courtesy of A24
Film News highest 2 lowest
A$AP Rocky extorts Denzel Washington in first full trailer for Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest
Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste

It’s been nearly five years since a new Spike Lee feature has hit the big screen, but the wait—at least for those of us who weren’t on the Croissette this year—is almost over. This morning, A24’s shared the first full trailer for Highest 2 Lowest, Lee’s upcoming picture and his latest collaboration with Denzel Washington after films like Malcolm X and He Got Game. Joining them are Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and, in his second A24 film of the year, A$AP Rocky. 

An official synopsis for Highest 2 Lowest reads: 

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. Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City.

Highest 2 Lowest has so far received mostly positive reviews at festival screenings earlier this spring. In a B-grade review for The A.V. Club, critic Rory Doherty opined that Lee’s film works best when it moves further from its Kurosawa source material, writing, “As the second half of William Alan Fox’s script slips away from the structure of High And Low, the diminished presence of the smooth, unmotivated Apple TV+ shooting style makes everything more compelling.” 

Highest 2 Lowest debuts in limited theaters on August 15, and hits Apple TV+ on September 5. 

 
Join the discussion...