Critics Review: Highest 2 Lowest Film Score

Spike Lee Gives Us Another Great New York Movie

The rest of Highest 2 Lowest fulfills every expectation you might want from a modern Spike Lee movie. Though Lee gave us one of the greatest New York movies of all time—and one of the greatest movies of all time, period—in 2001, with 25th Hour, he hasn’t made a movie set in New York since 2012’s Red Hook Summer. This one, shot by Matthew Libatique, is gleamingly beautiful right from the opening sequence, in which the city unfolds, in all its iridescent pigeon-feather splendor, as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” soars on the soundtrack. As tunes go, this one, with its half-homespun, half-surreal reference to corn growing as high as an elephant’s eye, is the opposite of urbane. But the incongruity is the point: as an expression of spontaneous daybreak joy, it’s unparalleled. Similarly, Howard Drossin’s magnificent score—sometimes majestic, sometimes achingly melancholy—follows the movie’s shifting moods perfectly. Every choice Lee has made pays off handsomely, and the movie’s action centerpiece—involving a subway chase, a Puerto Rican Day celebration featuring salsa great Eddie Palmieri, and a motorcycle relay of exquisite precision—might be the most beautifully edited sequence you’ll see all year. (Lee’s editors here are Barry Alexander Brown and Allyson C. Johnson.)

Feinberg on Cannes: Oscar Contenders Emerging

A24’s Highest 2 Lowest, the fifth big screen pairing of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, screened out of competition. While Spike’s joints sometimes resonate with the Academy (see: BlacKkKlansman), I’m not sure that this one will — although Howard Drossin’s score is particularly memorable. The same applies to the company’s film that’s in competition, Eddington, Ari Aster‘s dramedy about COVID-related tensions in America.

Howard Drossin’s score is particularly memorable.

Scott Fienberg for The Hollywood Reporter

As is the case with most Lee joints, this one has a superb, soaring musical score from Howard Drossin that really feels NYC to its core. Matthew Libatique’s sharp cinematography also shows off New York City to its full potential here.

As is the case with most Lee joints, this one has a superb, soaring musical score from Howard Drossin that really feels NYC to its core.

Pete Hammond for Deadline Hollywood Daily

The film is packed with great music, starting with Howard Drossin’s mood-shifting score, which ranges from melancholy piano to cascades of jazz, and two electrifying performances that add a massive charge. One of those is the title song, a big-build power anthem belted to the heavens by singer Aiyana-Lee. And the cast is top-to-toe excellent, with special honors to Washington, Jeffrey Wright and A$AP Rocky, who follows his work in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You with further proof of a megawatt screen presence. He also performs two original songs, “Trunks” and “Eyes Closed.”

The film is packed with great music, starting with Howard Drossin’s mood-shifting score, which ranges from melancholy piano to cascades of jazz

David Rooney for The Hollywood Reporter

This extended real-time dash, which snakes through a baseball-day match crowd and a Puerto Rican street fair, recalls the similar sequence in The French Connection: the city’s currents of colour and sound keep reshaping the action they’re unwittingly bearing along. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique nimbly switches between cameras and film stocks, as if crowd-sourcing shots on the fly, while Howard Drossin’s score – a tad cushiony elsewhere – starts literally reeling, striking up a four-four Celtic stomp that compounds the mad intermingling of cultures and tones.

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Howard Drossin’s score pulses like a hidden heartbeat beneath the film’s surface, shifting from sweeping orchestral swells in the penthouse to the gut-punch funk of James Brown and impromptu street bands. This duality underscores every twist of tension: lush strings amplify David King’s isolation in his glassy domain, while raw percussion and horn blasts propel the subway sequence into fever pitch, where drums and dialogue entwine in a single breath.

Howard Drossin’s score pulses like a hidden heartbeat beneath the film’s surface, shifting from sweeping orchestral swells in the penthouse to the gut-punch funk

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The journey to Cannes was as compelling as the film itself. Initially developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, the script by William Alan Fox first landed on Lee’s desk years ago, but it wasn’t until Denzel Washington signed on that the project truly ignited. Spike Lee’s rewrite deepened the New York narrative and sharpened the moral quandaries at the film’s core. Principal photography began in March 2024 and wrapped just before summer, with editing handled by longtime Lee collaborator Barry Alexander Brown. Music by Howard Drossin adds a moody, jazzy backbone to the story, while Lee’s own production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, brought together a coalition of creative forces including A24, Apple Studios, and Escape Artists. The result is a sleek thriller that feels like both a throwback to classic noir and a sharp commentary on modern fame, race, and power.

The story unfolds against the electric backdrop of New York City, and Spike Lee is one of the few directors who captures the megalopolis so vividly. In Highest 2 Lowest, the city becomes a character in itself, as present and pulsating as in the films of Scorsese. And if New York is a character, so is the music. Howard Drossin’s score swings between dissonant jazz and hard-edged hip-hop, echoing the protagonist’s internal conflict. The rest of the cast includes Ilfenesh Hadera as King’s grounded, unwavering wife; Jeffrey Wright plays his assistant; and A$AP Rocky as Yung Felony, a figure embodying the city’s raw energy.

The score, composed by Howard Drossin, pulses with tension, hip-hop, and heartbreak — reflecting the urban chaos at the film’s core.

– Box Office Hype