I’m Not Answering That Question

Over Spike Lee’s more than 40 years of directing feature films — from his indie breakout She’s Gotta Have It (1986) to his epic Hollywood biopic Malcolm X (1992) to his polemical Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) — he has earned a reputation as a provocateur and a savvy self-promoter. His “joints,” as the Brooklyn-bred auteur brands his movies, have sparked ludicrous fears of rioting (Do the Right Thing), unsettled audience notions about race and sex (Jungle Fever), and landed him in blockbuster Nike ads alongside Michael Jordan (“Money, it’s gotta be the shoes!”). His new movie, Highest 2 Lowest, aspires to no such distinction. Lee’s lively reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime drama High and Low just seeks to stage an entertaining morality play. But this is Spike Lee we’re talking about, which means his dramatization of a kidnapping plot involving a high-flying record executive, played by Denzel Washington, and a destitute superfan (A$AP Rocky) seems destined to be read as something more — whether the director intends it to or not. Sitting in the Fort Greene office of his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, surrounded by a kaleidoscope of global cinema memorabilia, framed vinyl records, and New York Knicks artifacts, Lee, 68, is alternately as charming and prickly as ever.