Spike Lee Evokes NYC’s Magic Amid White House Crackdowns

There are a handful of filmmakers whom we reflexively think of as New York City directors — Gothamites who tell stories about the city and its people with a native’s knowledge, insight and compassion. Martin Scorsese is the most obvious; Sidney Lumet is also clearly in the running. Then there’s Spike Lee, perhaps the most New York of New York directors, whose pictures are rarely set outside of the five boroughs, and whose brash NYC identity comes across not only in his work but in his interviews, writings and even appearances at major sporting events.

So it comes as no shock that his latest feature film, Highest 2 Lowest, is a New York movie through and through. What’s more surprising is that it arrives at a time when anti-city rhetoric feels louder than ever from the government, so the film serves as a striking response.