Among the weirdest films to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is Spike Lee ’s out-of-competition drama-thriller Highest 2 Lowest, the kind of idiosyncratic indulgence only a filmmaker of Lee’s stature is allowed.

Lee's "re-imagining" of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller 'High and Low' also stars Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Wendell Pierce and rappers ASAP Rocky and Ice Spice.

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have walked a long road together. The director and actor’s collaboration has run for 35 years, starting with “Mo’Better Blues” and including the seminal “Malcolm X.” But one thing they’ve never done is ascend the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival as comrades in arms.