‘Where is your father?’ Denzel Washington’s character demands of a young delinquent.
It’s been nearly 20 years since director Spike Lee and two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington last collaborated on a film, and the newly released “Highest 2 Lowest” reminds us the two men can bring out the best in each other.
Mr. Washington plays David King, a swaggering music executive and founder of a record label now in decline. King becomes entangled in a kidnapping plot when his chauffeur’s teenage son, having been mistaken for King’s son, is abducted by an aspiring rapper named Yung Felon and held for ransom. On its surface the movie is a police procedural. Yet it doubles as an engaging meditation on some of the best and worst aspects of black culture and the importance of father-son relationships.
An essay in the New Yorker magazine said the exploration of these themes marked a “conservative pivot” for the filmmaker, but that’s not quite accurate. Mr. Lee’s semi-autobiographical film “Crooklyn” (1994) is centered on black family life in 1970s Brooklyn. And in 1989, the year his breakout film “Do the Right Thing” was released, Mr. Lee described his upbringing in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline.”
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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