I walked into Highest 2 Lowest armed with this film’s title and two facts: Spike Lee directed it, and Denzel Washington is its star. That was all I needed to know.

All of the above exceeded my limited expectations.

This is an excellent Spike Lee Joint, as the veteran filmmaker calls his pictures. Lee’s 24th feature finds his five-time collaborator Denzel Washington as self-confident and inspiring as ever. He portrays David King, a Berry Gordy- or Russell Simmons-style music impresario. He embodies everything that Ibrahim X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and the rest of the execrable Critical Race Theorists say that black Americans cannot attain: power, prominence, and prosperity.

No one stands in King’s way. White folks do not hold him down. They admire him, sign contracts with him, and place him on the covers of their magazines.

Equipped with “the best ears in the business,” King is rich. He speeds around Gotham in a Rolls-Royce driven by a trusted childhood friend. King’s condominium boasts stunning views of Wall Street, from just across the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge. He and his equally accomplished wife (Ilfenesh Hadera) and promising high-school son (Aubrey Joseph) occupy a penthouse that brims with delicious modern art, posh furnishings, and the mother of all spiral staircases.

Amid CRT’s real-world, poisonous lie about blacks being terminally sandbagged by Whitey, it’s encouraging to see Hollywood offer such conspicuous examples of black achievement — from the affluent (and fictional) King family to Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Lester Young, and other jazz greats who observe from their canvas perches on the walls of the Kings’ high-rise home.

This film also depicts the opposite side of black life. Saying how would reveal too much of this riveting tale. Suffice it to say that those with the least also get their time on the Silver Screen. And these characters are intriguingly written and richly performed, as well.

This film’s momentum accelerates as David King’s world gets rocked by an unforeseen incident. It forces him to question family ties, friendships, father-son relationships, business associates, financial transactions, retirement plans, social-media volatility, and other major aspects of his life. Watching Washington weigh these moral dilemmas amid mounting pressure is a marvel to behold.

This film’s leading and supporting actors capably bring Alan Fox’s snappy and thoughtful script to life. Washington, Hadera, and Aubrey Joseph shine as the Kings of Brooklyn. Jeffrey Wright is both moving and unpredictable as close family friend “Uncle” Paul. His fictional son Kyle (real-life son Elijah Wright) is touching throughout. Tony winner LaChanze, John Douglas Thompson, and Dean Winters (Mayhem in Allstate’s TV spots) are consistently compelling as effective, albeit abrasive, NYPD detectives. A$AP Rocky sizzles in a pivotal role. To learn what it is, see this film.

Throughout it all, Lee keeps the action and his camera sweeping along, as ably assisted by cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Lee’s films have varied widely in their visual appeal. This one sparkles.

That said, several plot holes subtract from this film’s overall smoothness: Why do the Kings’ home movies, featuring a son born around 2008, appear on 8mm film stock? While still available for purists, that technology began fading to black at least 50 years ago.

Also, one key character resides in Apartment A24. This is an odd unit number, and a clever (if distracting) inside joke. Die-hard filmgoers — who read credits and follow which studios underwrite which movies — will chuckle. Still, such a wink of the camera lens would have fit better in the recent, hilarious, and surprisingly satisfying Naked Gun revival than in this suspenseful drama.

Another big plus is this title’s exceptional deployment of music: First and foremost, Howard Drossin’s polychromatic, high-energy score zips along elegantly as this story unfolds. The film opens with a beautiful Broadway classic sung robustly over lush footage of the Brooklyn and Manhattan skylines. Old soul tunes, which a man like David King would cherish, flow steadily from the soundtrack. McFadden and Whitehead’s 1979 disco hit “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” is a perfectly placed anthem to black triumph. James Brown’s “The Payback” (1973) suitably telegraphs vengeance, at exactly the right point in this picture. A piano-vocal duet late in the film is solid, both as music and storytelling.

And then there is this bonus, foreshadowed prominently in the opening credits (so, no spoiler here): The recently departed Latin-jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri makes a bravura appearance with his spectacular Salsa Orchestra. The late, great Palmieri and his 13 sidemen play an electrifying Afro-Caribbean tune in a colorful recreation of the Puerto Rico Day Parade. This gorgeously staged and edited sequence is not just a thrilling musical break. It also ties inventively to the plot.

Conservatives who are in no mood for yet another Left-wing lecture from the Hollywood know-it-alls need not worry. This film’s normally outspoken director keeps his liberalism almost entirely to himself. A solitary Kamala poster lurks quietly on a bedroom wall in Brooklyn. This is both totally plausible in that neighborhood and about as political as this movie gets.

Spike Lee has created a smart, stylish thriller about the haves, have nots, and what the latter will do to be more like the former. He very memorably presents these folks, from highest to lowest. One of America’s most ornery filmmakers is at the top of his game here, as is everyone who labors around him.

With Manhattan’s evening weather already cool enough for thin sweaters, one hopes that this signals the start of the season for grown-up films and an end to the schlock that bombed like the Blitzkrieg this summer.

Highest 2 Lowest continues its limited theatrical release and begins streaming today on Apple TV.

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Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor.