Darlings, grab your champagne flutes — Spike Lee just dropped the kind of Instagram announcement that makes film festivals feel like fashion week. In his deliciously signature all-caps style (honestly, who else could pull that off?), the maestro revealed that “Highest 2 Lowest” is heading to Cannes 2025. Not in competition, mind you, but dahling, when has Spike ever played by anyone else’s rules?
The film — his fifth tango with Denzel Washington — reimagines Kurosawa’s “High and Low” for the Spotify era. Rather than following a shoe executive (how terribly 1963), Lee’s version plants Washington in the deliciously cutthroat world of music executives. One can practically smell the designer cologne and taste the betrayal already.
Speaking of tastes, Cannes 2025 is serving up quite the cinematic buffet. Wes Anderson’s bringing “The Phoenician Scheme” (presumably with his usual suspects in tow), while Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” promises to be anything but new wave-by-numbers. Then there’s Julie Ducournau, fresh from making everyone squirm with “Titane,” ready to unsettle the Croisette again with “Alpha.”
But honey, it’s the snubs that have everyone’s tongues wagging harder than a Real Housewives reunion. Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love” — with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, no less — didn’t make the cut. The festival’s relationship with Ramsay has more dramatic turns than a telenovela, so this particular absence feels… pointed.
In a refreshing twist that’s got the old guard clutching their pearls, newcomer Amelie Bonin’s “Leave One Day” snagged the opening night slot. A debut film opening Cannes? Somebody fetch the smelling salts! Meanwhile, horror wunderkind Ari Aster is bringing “Eddington” to competition, proving that Cannes might finally be ready to admit that genre films aren’t just for the midnight screening crowd.
This all comes as Hollywood itself undergoes its own fabulous identity crisis. The Academy’s finally giving stunts their moment in the spotlight — better late than never, sweetie — with a new Oscar category landing just in time for their centennial celebration in 2028. About time too, considering some of us have been championing these unsung heroes since before contouring was mainstream.
The Lee-Washington partnership, backed by the impossibly chic pairing of Apple Original Films and A24, promises to be the kind of event that makes other out-of-competition selections look like they showed up to the Met Gala in off-the-rack. Their track record — from “Malcolm X” to “Inside Man” — sparkles brighter than a Harry Winston showcase.
For now, we’re all left waiting with bated breath for more details about both “Highest 2 Lowest” and any eleventh-hour additions to the lineup. Because darling, in the gloriously unpredictable world of international cinema, sometimes the best drama happens before the cameras even start rolling.
And as Spike would say — in that inimitable style that makes publicists reach for their anxiety medication — “AND DAT’S DA TRUTH, RUTH.” Honestly, who could possibly argue with that?
Leave a Reply