1 week ago Highest 2 Lowest review – Denzel Washington is surprisingly one

The Oscar-winner’s latest collaboration with Lee – based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece ‘High and Low’ – is short on emotional depth

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1 week ago Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest rages against the new but leaves him looking too old

The film-maker’s ‘reinterpretation’ of the Kurosawa crime drama rails against AI, online media and new hip-hop but can’t find much new to say“We’re jazz musicians,” the director Spike Lee recently said of his working dynamic with Denzel Washington in Highest 2 Lowest, a new crime thriller that marks the fifth collaboration between the two Oscar winners. “We respect Julie Andrews singing My Favorite Things, but when John Coltrane did it, you know, or when Miles [Davis] did his standard of My Funny Valentine, it’s a different thing.”The metaphor is no throwaway. Since Lee’s breakout on to the cultural scene in the 1980s, the Atlanta-born, Brooklyn-made auteur has been at pains to style himself as an outgrowth of old school storytelling traditions even as critics tarred him as a new-school disrupter. From She’s Gotta Have It to Chi-Raq, Lee has made the extra effort to venerate the athletes, artists and thinkers who have shaped his distinctly analog worldview. Highest 2 Lowest was mean...

Politics

2 w. ago 30 years on: how Tyson’s comeback fight after prison set the tone for pay

One of the great mismatches ended in controversy after just 89 seconds but did show what people will pay to seeIn Las Vegas, 30 years ago, prisoner 922335, not long released from the Indiana Youth Center, boxed an unknown club fighter in a bout that shattered pay-per-view records. Mike Tyson v Peter McNeeley may be, in a competitive field, the most audaciously staged mismatch in boxing history. Its global success, despite only 89 seconds of action and a farcical ending, set the tone for the sport’s development in the modern era.Promoted simply as “He’s Back”, the contest was Tyson’s return after a three-year imprisonment for rape, but the former undisputed heavyweight champion’s popularity seemed to have increased. Among those ringside at a sold-out MGM Grand sat Madonna, Nicolas Cage, Jerry Seinfeld, Denzel Washington, Jim Carrey, Pamela Anderson, Eddie Murphy and an alarmingly human-coloured Donald Trump. All in attendance to see something akin to a ritual sacrifice. Continue read...

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2 w. ago Spike Lee is one of our greatest living directors – so why does no one care about his new film?

‘Highest 2 Lowest’ is a punchy thriller with one of the world’s biggest actors, Denzel Washington, as its lead. Lee hasn’t lost his touch, writes Xan Brooks, but the world is forcing him out to the margins again

Politics

2 w. ago Denzel Washington shares why he doesn’t care about cancel culture

‘What made public support so important to begin with?’ asked Oscar winner

Politics

2 w. ago Denzel Washington explains real reason he ‘doesn’t care’ about Oscars

Actor has been nominated for 10 Oscars and won two in a nearly five-decade career

Politics

2 w. ago Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky had a rap battle. One is claiming victory

A$AP Rocky had no idea Denzel Washington was going to throw Nas at him

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