Low payoff in Lee's latest film

Denzel Washington elevates Spike Lee's latest film Highest 2 Lowest, though its blunt critique of hip-hop culture leaves a bitter aftertaste

- Kibo Ngowi

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington are one of the most captivating actor-irector duos in Hollywood. Right up there with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio or Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan.

I'll never forget watching Lee and Washington's towering portrait of African-American revolutionary Malcolm X, originally released in 1992. They also gave us Mo' Better Blues (1990), He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006).

So, when I found out they were teaming up to deliver a new film titled Highest 2 Lowest, I was excited. I was even more excited when I found out the cast would feature Richard Wright and A$AP Rocky.

The film I watched, released on Apple TV+ on 5 September after a three-week cinema run, was both entertaining and frustrating.

Here's the plot — David King (Washington) is a New York music mogul with a storied career boasting decades of award-winning music and chart-topping hits. A few years earlier he had sold the majority stake in the record label he founded but now he intends to buy it back to thwart a rival label from executing a hostile takeover.