'By Any Means' Review
Release Date: 09/04/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Crime. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures.
The Verdict: A Must-See
Thumbing back through the history of effective crime movies, where the dueling natures of good guys versus bad guys are the heartbeat, we sometimes get treated to a story that challenges the ethos of right and wrong. By Any Means, a new film from Elegance Bratton, feels less like a vindication for following protocol and more like a catharsis of crossing the line to appease our desires through street justice. The effectiveness of this crime story flies in the face of the do-gooder, Boy Scout, the-truth-will-set-you-free boundaries of convention. In this film, the good guy does beat the bad guys, but with the assistance of another bad guy.
The fact remains that By Any Means is based, loosely, on a true story. Set in 1966 Mississippi, the not-too-distant past (in my parents’ lifetime), By Any Means begins with the killing of Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito), a Black civil rights leader who dared to inspire the local Black community to use their newly acquired voting power, even offering to put up the $2 ballot fee for their trouble. The mobilized Ku Klux Klan, still rife with energy and sore about the 1965 Voting Rights Act, has terrorized Dahmer, his family, and the Hattiesburg community relentlessly, and takes violent action against him.
While that historical fact is true, the follow-up investigation for this case is a mix of mob history, FBI urban legend, and screenwriting inventions. G-Man Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), still relatively green to the FBI, moves with his wife Allison (Nicole Beharie) from Chicago back down to Hattiesburg, just in time for the Dahmer tragedy to happen. Strider’s attempt to investigate is put on ice. Being a black man in the South in the 1960s didn’t come with an asterisk – the neighbors, local police, and even his own superiors don’t care that he is an FBI agent. They see color first.
Since the local community knows better than to push the Klan’s patience, they aren’t talking to any investigators. Enter Greg Scarpa Sr. (Mark Wahlberg), complete in a fancy suit, toothpick, with an imposing presence that belies his short frame. Scarpa, a capo in the New York Colombo crime family and occasional FBI informant, is sent down to Hattiesburg to “assist” with the investigation, with a reluctant Strider as his handler.
The pair work the case together, Strider standing by law-enforcement principles, and Scarpa unleashing a salvo of brutal interrogation tactics. “I ain’t shinin’ no shoes, I’m crackin’ f---in’ heads,” Scarpa whiffs at Strider. It is during these early interactions that we see the true dichotomy at play. Strider knows that playing by the rules is his duty as a federal agent, but when lawful tactics don’t yield results, mob rules can step in. The chemistry between the two is dripping, playing off each other as they extol their virtues. I was happily reminded of the odd cop couple of the first True Detective season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Both leads here are exemplary. Abdul-Mateen II deftly embodies a man who is stoic when he wants to be and aggressive when he is allowed to be. Unlike his white peers, he must carefully walk through his community and interact with others. He is both exhilarated and mortified by the temerity of the methods Scarpa employs to draw answers out of suspects. Abdul-Mateen II balances the contradictory emotions he feels on his face alone.
But the real standout is Wahlberg, displaying a lot of Mafioso stereotypes, yet possessing a grounded approach to life, a lifestyle that makes sense to a person in the mob. His rationale for what he does is confidently explained within the guardrails of his street code. Unfazed by society’s laws, he does what needs to get done.
Wahlberg’s performance is likely to go unnoticed during awards season, and it’s a real shame. He is electrifying in every scene he is in. We are introduced to Wahlberg’s Scarpa in the opening sequence, beating a man’s kneecaps with a baseball bat, nonchalantly reminding his captive, who just confessed the valuable information requested, that all this pain was avoidable. This looming authority permeates all of Wahlberg’s scenes, even in subtle expressions when he asks his son about a black eye during family dinner, and how his son is going to put the other kid in the hospital later.
By Any Means, steeped in both truth and fantasy, is a wild ride throughout most of the runtime. The historical truth of how the investigation ends is where the script takes us and, by conventional action-crime movie standards, comes off as anticlimactic. It is ironic that in a film that lets us vicariously break the rules, it doesn’t grant us that purifying relief when it’s all over. On the surface, By Any Means is an exhilarating crime story exploring a tumultuous time in American history, with mob-violence accouterments juxtaposed against the rural setting of the South. Underneath, it is an examination of conscience. When all the right ways don’t work, what else are we to do?
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