Parents' Guide to Highest 2 Lowest

Director Spike Lee's remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic 1963 police procedural High and Low brilliantly keeps the key elements of the original, while satisfyingly updating and energizing the story. Where the original was focused on a wealthy shoe manufacturer, Highest 2 Lowest moves the setting to the music business, letting Lee tackle such issues as AI-created music, art versus commerce, social media interference, and more. (Several characters assert that, today, "attention is the biggest currency.") The central conflict—whether David should be as responsible for his driver's son as he would be for his own—is kept at a high pitch. Lee includes a fascinating scene in which David, alone in his office, talks to photos of famous musicians ("what should I do?"), and then plucks two magazine covers adorned with his own picture off the wall ("y'all talk to each other").

Washington, certainly one of the acting GOATs, gives a magnetic, confident, but slightly off-kilter performance, as if David King never fully found his place in the world and is still searching. Whereas the second half of the original movie focused on the police's meticulous efforts to track down the kidnapper—leaving the mogul character largely out of the action—Lee's remake ramps things up and puts David at the center of the drama. New York City becomes a character as well, with throngs of Yankees fans crowding onto a train and enthusiastic dancers at a Puerto Rican street festival. His showdown with the kidnapper—they face off with the glass of a recording studio booth between them—is another electric moment. Highest 2 Lowest has its odd touches, including some curious doubled-up editing and a slightly heavy music score, but these are Lee's personal touches (which also include shout-outs to the music and art that he loves). Even though this is a remake, he makes it his own.