‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Is a N.Y. Movie State of Mind, With Spike Lee!

News, notes, and the fall trailerswhat dropped while they were away

Weapons 2025

The one bit of summer news that reeled Amanda back in: it opened to $40 million-plus, which neither host saw coming.

Wuthering Heights 2026

Emerald Fennell's third feature (Warner Bros., February 14), with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff and original songs by Charli XCX. Amanda, an Austen person over a Brontë person, worries the trailer's winking tone is too arch for the book; both think it will still work commercially.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 2026

The immediate follow-up to '28 Years Later,' directed by Nia DaCosta rather than Danny Boyle, with Jack O'Connell featured prominently. Looked 'fine,' less soulful and more zombie-slashing than the first film's trailer.

Is This Thing On? 2025

Bradley Cooper's December film, starring Will Arnett as a stand-up comedian going through a divorce, with Laura Dern. The hosts read it as his safest, least risky swing after 'A Star Is Born' and 'Maestro'; closing-night film at the New York Film Festival.

Die My Love 2025

Lynne Ramsay's Cannes premiere, acquired by Mubi for over $20 million, with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Pitched as a postpartum 'psychophantasia' from the studio behind 'The Substance.' Skipped the fall festivals; Sean is on board for Ramsay's broken-down psychology.

'Highest 2 Lowest'Spike Lee · on Apple TV+

Highest 2 Lowest 2025

Spike Lee's 24th scripted feature and first film in five years, his longest gap ever. Alan Fox's screenplay reimagines Kurosawa's 'High and Low' (and the Ed McBain novel 'King's Ransom' under it), with Denzel Washington as music mogul David King, targeted by a ransom plot that takes the driver's son instead of his own. With Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and A$AP Rocky; shot by Matthew Libatique, cut by Barry Alexander Brown and Allison C. Johnson. Both hosts split the movie in two: a flat, artificial first 40 minutes of chamber-piece plotting undone by weak supporting performances, then a New York second half (the money drop, the Puerto Rican Day Parade, Eddie Palmieri, a Denzel/A$AP studio showdown) that won them over. Denzel is mannered and gestural; Wright is the quiet standout. Sean laments Apple sending a Denzel movie straight to streaming.

'Caught Stealing'Darren Aronofsky

Caught Stealing 2025

Aronofsky's ninth feature, adapted by Charlie Huston from his own novel. Austin Butler is Hank, a bartender and washed-up baseball prospect who agrees to cat-sit for a neighbor and falls into crime in 1998 Lower East Side New York. With Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bad Bunny, Griffin Dunne, and Carol Kane. Both found it implausible and tonally forced, wanting to be a Guy Ritchie caper and an 'After Hours' late-night New York movie without getting there. They felt it died when Kravitz's character is killed midway. Butler is a Brad Pitt type miscast as a corn-fed normie; the cultural-stereotype ensemble reads as a wink that never lands.

In conversation with Spike Leehis first time on the show

Spike Lee on

Rashomon 1950

Lee first saw it in graduate film school and used its structure for his debut, 'She's Gotta Have It'; he later got to meet Kurosawa. He frames 'Highest 2 Lowest' as a jazz reinterpretation of a standard, not a remake.

Spike Lee on

25th Hour 2002

Lee's pick for his own slept-on film, a 'living document' of New York City just after 9/11, from David Benioff's novel, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Edward Norton, and Rosario Dawson. He says the city wasn't ready for it at the time.

Spike Lee on

Sinners 2025

His answer to the show's closing question, the last great thing he's seen. Ryan Coogler called him to a Los Angeles IMAX for the final DCP check; Lee calls the music sequence the best filmmaking he's seen in years.

Also mentioned raised along the way

On the fall calendar One Battle After AnotherThe Strangers: Chapter 2HimDownton Abbey: The Grand FinaleA Big Bold Beautiful JourneySpinal Tap II: The End ContinuesThe Conjuring: Last RitesThe Long WalkThe RosesWicked: For GoodTron: AresRoofmanThe Bad Guys 2

Mentioned in passing Freakier Friday28 Years LaterSaltburnA Star Is BornMaestroThe SubstanceIf I Had Legs I'd Kick YouThe OdysseyThe Adventures of Cliff Booth

'Highest 2 Lowest' touchstones High and LowDo the Right ThingInside ManMalcolm XMo' Better BluesGladiator IIThe EqualizerMegalopolis

'Caught Stealing': Aronofsky and touchstones PiRequiem for a DreamThe FountainThe Whalemother!Black SwanThe WrestlerSnatchAfter HoursMeet Joe BlackA River Runs Through ItMoneyball

In the Spike Lee interview She's Gotta Have ItChi-RaqDa 5 BloodsThe French ConnectionThe Defiant OnesThe Year of Living DangerouslyThe Manchurian CandidateOn the Waterfront

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV SouthlandThe Gilded Age

Podcasts Mission AccomplishedWTF with Marc MaronThe Zach Lowe ShowPablo Torre Finds Out

Books Jane EyreKing's RansomWhat Makes Sammy Run

Video games Fortnite

Unmade projects Save Us, Joe Louis

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