Esteemed filmmaker Spike Lee received a Tribute Award at the Mill Valley Film Festival this weekend. While on stage with Oakland-based actor Delroy Lindo, who starred in four of Lee's films, Lee suddenly remembered he directed the 2004 film As the Chronicle reports, Lee was on stage with Lindo, who most recently starred in the Ryan Coogler film , when it dawned on Lee that he'd shot a film entirely in San Francisco. Struggling to remember the film's name, Lee asked the audience to pull up IMDB.
Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest is nominally about a wealthy music producer (Denzel Washington) forced to decide whether it's worth giving up his fortune to save the life of his oldest friend's son. But it's clear that what engages Lee is the opportunity to follow his protagonist through the streets of New York and catch up on the latest. Like Lee, Washington's character is a legend in his field, surrounded by tributes to the trailblazers who inspired him;
On this week's show, Dana, Julia, and Steve are joined by special fourth guest host: Wesley Morris of the New York Times. The foursome wield their sharpest critical tools for a discussion of the horror hit Weapon s. Whether the twisty thrill ride hits its intended target- and what exactly is said target- is up for debate.
For close to four decades, Spike Lee has made some of the most important movies in the modern era of filmmaking. From the socially conscious "Do The Right Thing" to the powerful "Malcolm X," Lee has used the medium to shed light on some of the most important (and often ignored) issues of our times. And in 2019, he was finally recognized by Hollywood with an Oscar win for the screenplay of his movie "BlacKkKlansman" (he also received an honorary Oscar in 2016).
Then, in the mid-twentieth century, a group of young French critics issued a cri du coeur that gave rise to the figure of the auteur: visionary filmmakers ranging from Jean-Luc Godard to Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson. In the final installment of this year's Critics at Large interview series, Vinson Cunningham talks with the staff writer Richard Brody about the origins of auteur theory, and about the lengths to which directors have gone for artistic freedom in the decades since.
"Highest 2 Lowest is Lee's first New York-shot and set film since 2014's Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. It is an ambitious film set across Manhattan and Brooklyn."
