Over Spike Lee’s more than 40 years of directing feature films — from his indie breakout She’s Gotta Have It (1986) to his epic Hollywood biopic Malcolm X (1992) to his polemical Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) — he has earned a reputation as a provocateur and a savvy self-promoter. His “joints,” as the Brooklyn-bred auteur brands his movies, have sparked ludicrous fears of rioting ( Do the Right Thing ), unsettled audience notions about race and sex ( Jungle Fever ), and landed him in blockbuster Nike ads alongside Michael Jordan (“Money, it’s gotta be the shoes!”). His new movie, Highest 2 Lowest , aspires to no such distinction. Lee’s lively reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime drama High and Low just seeks to stage

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