Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ finds its groove in New York’s streets

Music executive David King (Denzel Washington) is faced with a moral dilemma: Save a kidnapped kid or his flagging empire. Courtesy of A24

“Highest 2 Lowest” — 2.5 stars

Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” takes some time to find its groove. But once it does, when the film leaves the high rises and puts its feet on the New York pavement, it really sings.

A reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller “High and Low,” Lee brings the story to a modern-day New York where a music mogul, played by Denzel Washington, is faced with a moral dilemma: Save a kidnapped kid or his flagging empire. Both will cost nearly everything he has.

We toss around the term “auteur” pretty casually these days. It’s become almost a shorthand for any filmmaker with an ounce of style. But “Highest 2 Lowest”