Early reactions to Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest are in, with critics highlighting Denzel Washington's performance. Premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 19, the neo-noir crime thriller is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film High and Low, loosely based on Ed McBain's novel, King's Ransom. Washington stars as a musical mogul entangled in a ransom plot.