Highest 2 Lowest tops the ranking for all past collaborations between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington

Helmer Spike Lee's forthcoming film Highest 2 Lowest starring Denzel Washington, tops all the rest of the rankings within the past collaborations of the director-actor duo.

The film has garnered an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the highest amongst the films they have worked together. It has also been screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2025.

A reinvention of the classic Akira Kurosawa film from 1963, High and Low, Highest 2 Lowest follows the story of a bigwig who has achieved a lot of success in the business of music, and finds himself in a crucial ethical conflict.

Its synopsis, as per IMDb, goes as follows:

"When a titan music mogul is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. A reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City."

Let us find out more about Highest 2 Lowest, and all the rest of the Rotten Tomatoes scores of the films of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington.

More about Highest 2 Lowest, and the past collaborations between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington

Director Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's latest venture, Highest 2 Lowest, achieved a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This is the fifth time the iconic director-actor duo have joined hands together, after almost 19 years since their last collaboration in the 2006 film Inside Man.

After Highest 2 Lowest, the 1992 iconic film Malcolm X stands as the second highest ranked film amongst the Lee-Washington collaborations. Based on the life of one of the most important and prominent figures of Black and Muslim history, Malcolm X, this film has garnered a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

For his role as Malcolm X, he was nominated for Best Actor at the 65th Academy Awards.

In third place lies Inside Man, with a score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is then followed by the 1998 film He Got Game, which has a score of 80%. And lastly, we have the 1990 film Mo' Better Blues, which has scored 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.

All the films directed by Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington, have landed with great scores on Rotten Tomatoes. However, while speaking to The Guardian, Spike Lee has revealed that Highest 2 Lowest could be the last film they are collaborating together, as he mentions:

“This is the fifth one we’ve done together,”

“It has been a blessing, this body of work between us, doing films that people love. And I think this is it. He’s been talking about retirement. But five films together: that’s good, they stand up.”

A24's Highest 2 Lowest is set to make its release in the United States on August 22, 2025. It is scheduled to stream on Apple TV+ on September 5, 2025. Along with Denzel Washington, the film stars Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, Dean Winters, Ice Spice, and many others.