[I review Spike Lee's - "Highest 2 Lowest" - as well as "The Thursday Murder Club" and the documentary "Unknown Number: The High School Catfish"]
Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
When a music mogul is caught up in a ransom plot, he must make a life-changing moral decision.
David King (Denzel Washington) is a New York City music mogul and the founder of Stackin' Hits Records. He needs to buy back his majority ownership of his company to avoid a buyout by a rival label. But to raise the cash to do that, King needs to put up many of his personal assets including his penthouse and art collection as collateral. But the day the deal is to go through, King receives a call from an anonymous caller who says he has kidnapped King's son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), and the kidnapper demands $17.5 million in Swiss 1,000-franc notes. There goes King's deal to buy back his company but he agrees with his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), to pay the ransom. But then, in a twist of fate, we learn that it wasn't Trey who was kidnapped, it was Trey's best friend, Kyle (Elijah Wright), who is also the son of King's driver and best friend, Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright).
So now King is caught in a moral dilemma and needs to do some soul searching. Does he pay that ransom and ruin his business for somebody else's son? And what happens, if he goes after the kidnapper himself?
Spike Lee directs this crime thriller which he describes as a "reinterpretation" of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low," which was based on the 1959 novel "King's Ransom" by Ed McBain. This is Lee's fifth collaboration with Washington and the first since "Inside Man," which he directed 19 years ago.
I have always been a big Spike Lee fan ever since his first feature film "She's Gotta Have it (1986)," and this film has many of the elements we have come to expect from Lee. It's a bit of a love letter to New York City exploring urban life; it has a big opening sequence, dynamic camera movements and a bold style. It's a commentary on the music business, and it wouldn't be a Spike Lee film without some sports references ("Go Yankees!") But it's also a story of friendship and family, which I liked, but sadly the first half of the film was slow moving and felt overdramatic and the soundtrack was annoying, but then happily as the film progressed, the second half picked up and there was Spike Lee at his best. I also appreciated the sharp dialogue thanks to the screenplay by Alan Fox and the appearance of A$AP Rocky as a greedy, ambitious rapper.
So Lee's surefire direction is apparent here, but this movie is all about Denzel Washington, who is at the top of his game. Nobody plays it big like Denzel. But Wright, coming off his Oscar nom for "American Fiction," is also a wonderful actor and holds his own with Denzel. Uh, Denzel, may I call you Denzel?
Rosy the Reviewer says...though the film has some issues, it's compelling and has a message of hope, that sometimes life's "lowest" is more about getting back to the basics than taking you down. Thank you, Spike! You still got it! May I call you Spike? (Netflix)
The Thursday Murder Club (2025)
Four retirees living in a retirement village, pass the time trying to solve cold cases but soon find themselves involved in a real life very hot whodunit.
As a retiree myself, I learned that in retirement, it is important to find meaning, and psychiatrist Ibrahim Arifv (Ben Kingsley), former trade union leader Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan), and Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), whose former work remains a mystery for much of the film, though I figured it out early, have found meaning by forming the Thursday Murder Club (TMC), which meets weekly to discuss old cold cases. They all live in Cooper's Chase, a retirement village in the English countryside and are soon joined by new resident, Joyce (Celia Imrie), a retired nurse, whose medical knowledge is needed. The group was inspired by a murder case once handled by Detective Inspector Penny Gray, a friend of Elizabeth's who is now comatose in hospice.
Meanwhile, Ian Ventham (David Tennant), one of the owners of Coopers Chase, wants to redevelop it into luxury flats. His partner, Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), opposes that idea as do all of the residents. Tony promises the residents he will block the sale but then Tony is found dead.
The TMC now has a real case to investigate and they enlist the help of young detective constable Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie), who has just come from London and is bored with the routine tasks she is given at the police station, not to mention the English countryside where nothing seems to happen. The Club must now rule out the usual suspects, and in so doing, find themselves embroiled with local crime boss, Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant), another murder, and that earlier unsolved case that Detective Penny Gray had been working on.
If you like cozy British mysteries, how can you go wrong with this very British story based on the book by Richard Osman, which is part of his popular mystery series (screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote), directed by Chris Columbus and with such an oh-so-British all-star cast? The film is also a sort of comedy and has some funny moments, but what I liked most was that even though these actors are "of a certain age," the film did not try to create comedy by making fun of them. Some filmmakers think it's funny to see a sex-crazed 80-year old smoking pot and telling everybody to f**k off. I don't.
Rosy the Reviewer says...though the resolution of the film is kind of a stretch and the plot one of those convoluted ones we have come to expect from British mysteries, it's fun watching these veteran actors do their thing. And do you think there will be a sequel? Duh. (Netflix)
In 2020, teens Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny, who were boyfriend and girlfriend living in small Beal City, Michigan, started to received thousands of text messages - 40 to 50 a day. The texts were very graphic and from an unknown number. It was assumed that the messages were coming from a classmate attempting to break up their relationship. The texts were not only really explicit but cruel, even telling Lauryn to kill herself. They also referenced personal aspects of their lives that only someone close to them would know.
The harassment went on for over a year, causing paranoia in the town and ruining relationships as everyone was suspicious of everyone. Lauryn was even accused of doing this to herself, but eventually the FBI became involved and the identity of the catfish was discovered.
And it was totally shocking.
I love documentaries and have always been fascinated by catfishing (I have been watching "Catfish," the TV show from the beginning), though this wasn't really a standard catfish story. But it is an extremely compelling mystery directed by Skye Borgman, and the ending is about as shocking as you can get, but I wish there had been answers. Even now, I don't really understand why the person did it, even though there was an attempt to explain, but mostly I was left feeling very strange by Lauryn's final reaction to it all and the end of the film was very unsettling.
Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like documentaries, this is an engrossing one that will shock you. (Netflix)
See You Next Time!
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