Spike Lee’s working relationship with Denzel Washington stretches back 35 years. Their latest collaboration, Highest 2 Lowest, is an entertaining crime thriller – but it seems sketchy and lightweight when set against some of their previous movies together, most notably 1992’s Malcolm X.
Washington plays a New York record company boss, David King, the man with the “best ears in the business”. He’s a multimillionaire living in considerable luxury in a swanky apartment at the top of a very tall skyscraper. He has a beautiful wife, and respectful and talented children. But we know from the moment we first see him – looking down on the city below, the master of all he surveys – that his life will soon take a turn.
