What Happens When Spike Lee, Denzel Washington & A$AP Rocky’s Highest 2 Lowest Spars with Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black — Culture Is Shooked
That Begins the Story
How did I arrive here, I wonder. Because the flux in the political atmosphere is overwhelmingly tormenting — that black hole of emotion, the kind that pulls the body, mind, and spirit into exhaustion. The scenarios keep circling, repeating, unraveling — until the regime that punctured and bled these wounds of human tribulation finally collapses under its own weight.
And then, in the midst of that chaos, there is art. There is theatre — imagined worlds where actors and artists stand as both backdrop and pulse, where culture still dares to breathe through performance, even when politics chokes the air.
It dawned on me recently — somewhere between headlines and disturbance — what happened to Highest 2 Lowest, that megastar collaboration of Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, and A$AP Rocky. A film with the gravitational pull of icons, yet seemingly swallowed by silence.
I confess, I have not yet seen it. But I have streamed Beauty in Black — and without guilt, remorse, or moral hesitation, I found myself enthralled. Maybe not moved to redemption, but undeniably intrigued.
Because here’s the truth: the bandwidth for these stories — these cinematic collisions of power, pain, and identity — only reaches the few who are still willing to be disassembled and put back together by what they see. And perhaps that’s the only kind of audience art really deserves.
Culture at Its Best — and at Its Most Decapitating
When art fails to catch the wind of its time, it isn’t always because it lacks brilliance. Sometimes, it’s because culture itself has already moved on — fickle, fast, hungry for what feels new, but equally cruel to what refuses to bend. That is where we find ourselves with Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest — a film anchored in power, class, and the geometry of conscience — and the quieter storm brewing beneath it: Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black.
Two worlds, same canvas. Both helmed by Black visionaries who, in different languages, try to dissect who we have become — and who we pretend to be.
The Silence of a Giant
Highest 2 Lowest should have been thunder. Spike Lee. Denzel Washington. A$AP Rocky. That constellation alone should have lit the night sky.
Instead, the film landed like a whisper. It had pedigree, intellect, and legacy — but it also had restraint. Richard Brody in The New Yorker called it “one of Lee’s most personal films, both emotionally and intellectually,” yet The Irish Times countered that “too much of Highest 2 Lowest feels knocked off in a hugely expensive hurry.” That polarity tells the story: critics found the film worth thinking about, but audiences scrolling through the noise didn’t stop long enough to feel it.
Robert Daniels wrote in RogerEbert.com that Lee “isn’t copying what was great before — he’s making a Spike Lee joint, and it’s exceptional.” Still, even that praise lived quietly within cinephile circles, not in the roaring chorus of social media. The culture — that ungovernable jury — deemed it “fine” but not viral. And so, Highest 2 Lowest was drowned by the silence of our collective impatience.
When Culture Demands Fire, Not Poise
Contrast that with Beauty in Black. Tyler Perry, long the architect of comfort cinema, turns inward — and darker. The lights are dimmer, the truths heavier, and the glamour isn’t a costume; it’s a mask.
Rico Ross, a classically trained actor, morphs into a down-low mogul — charming, ruthless, unraveling in moral chiaroscuro. Debbi Morgan’s seasoned elegance collides with Richard Lawson’s gravitas, surrounded by a cast of quixotic talents who bring a raw, Babel-like chaos that’s both uncomfortable and magnetic.
And look how differently the world reacts. Where Lee’s film was called “tepid” and “corny” by Fish Jelly Films, Perry’s latest — though underground — provokes firestorms across streaming chatter. Even uncomfortable films, the ones that twitch in moral ambiguity, ignite conversation because they aren’t safe. They invite the voyeurism of discomfort. They make us lean in.
The Antithesis of Polished Banality
Spike Lee’s work is intentional. Crafted. Controlled. Perry’s Beauty in Black — though called chaotic by some — breathes with a riskier honesty. It exposes. It teases the grotesque beauty in moral collapse.
One film (Highest 2 Lowest) sought to restore moral architecture — a meditation on class, ethics, and power. The other (Beauty in Black) pulls the scaffolding down and dares us to look at the wreckage.
The result? One is antithetical to the banality of theatrical safety. The other thrives because it’s dangerously imperfect. And that’s the lesson: culture doesn’t always crave elevation — sometimes it wants friction, even fire.
At the Crossroads of Black Film
We are witnessing a fascinating inversion. The architects of Black cinema — Lee, Washington, Perry — now compete with the appetite of a generation raised on immediacy. They built the staircase, but the new audience doesn’t always climb; it scrolls, swipes, reacts.
Yet amid that flux, Beauty in Black suggests something deeper: authenticity, even when flawed, beats legacy when sterilized. People still crave truth — even messy truth. And maybe that’s what Highest 2 Lowest missed: the unfiltered pulse of the now.
The Final Reflection
At its best, culture is critique. At its worst, it is decapitation — swift, viral, unceremonious. What survives is rarely the most perfect work; it’s the work that dares to bleed in public.
In that light, Beauty in Black hums beneath the radar but pulses with life, while Highest 2 Lowest — despite its royal lineage — stands in quiet majesty, awaiting rediscovery.
Both are necessary. One refines the art. The other reignites the fire. And between the two lies the truth of this cultural moment — we demand to be moved, even if it burns.
Endnotes — Voices in Conversation
- • Richard Brody, The New Yorker: “One of Lee’s most personal films, both emotionally and intellectually.”
- • Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com: “He isn’t copying what was great before — he’s making a Spike Lee joint. And it’s exceptional.”
- • Donald Clark, The Irish Times: “Too much of Highest 2 Lowest feels knocked off in a hugely expensive hurry.”
- • Fish Jelly Films (via Rotten Tomatoes): “Ruined by a tepid, corny screenplay.”
- • Viewer reactions to Beauty in Black (Netflix threads): “Uncomfortable but unturnoffable — raw, strange, necessary.”
Labels: Grace Notes Essays, Black Cinema, Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky, Tyler Perry, Beauty in Black, Culture Is Shooked, Film Critique, Cultural Commentary
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