By Any Means
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
A powerful crime thriller based on a true story, BY ANY MEANS is elevated by two great performances by its leads and a gritty, 70's cop thriller vibe that soaks every taut, bloody inch of the tale.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen, Us) is excellent as FBI Agent Wayne Strider. He's idealistic and devoted to bringing justice to the Black victims of Mississippi in 1966, having just moved back to the South with his wife Allison (Nicole Beharie from "42").
In the racist, KKK infested South, Wayne's FBI badge brings only laughter and ridicule. It's disgusting seeing how the KKK ran most of the law and nearly every business in these tiny towns.
In his best performance since "The Departed", Mark Wahlberg plays Brooklyn Mob Hitman Greg Scarpa. The FBI has used Scarpa before in the South, cracking heads and getting answers "by any means" at his disposal, including vicious beatings, torture and murder. It's quite a statement on the state of things in these communities when an unbridled mobster is the good guy, unleashing hellish vengeance on the racist hillbillies and white supremacists.
After a prominent Black businessman Vern Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito) speaks out to his community, offering to pay the intentional $2 fee that the South has levied against Blacks only, for the right to vote, he and his family are attacked by the KKK, their house burned and Vern murdered.
FBI Special Agents Roy K. Moore (the ALWAYS great David Strathairn) and Everett Rhodes (Josh Lucas) are under huge pressure from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Johnson to find Dahmer's murderers.
They come up with the creative solution to pair by-the-book Strider with the explosive Scarpa. If you think that sounds like a buddy cop film, it isn't, but Wahlberg does deliver some big laughs playing off the super straight Wayne.
But the laughs fade as the two arrive in town and a local policeman almost immediately tries to kill Strider.
What follows is a gritty police procedural blended with a mob movie, very cleverly & seamlessly so. Part 'In the Heat of the Night" and part "The French Connection", the film feels like it could have been made in the late sixties or early seventies.
The entire town is like a powderkeg waiting to go off, with every racist hillbilly running around ready to light the match with a flamethrower. Watching Strider and Scarpa's "partnership" is fascinating, sometimes fun and often brutally violent.
It's easy to forget sometimes what a strong actor Wahlberg is when he's in a lesser film, but he's in peak form here, going head-to-head with Abdul-Mateen, who infuses every quiet moment and stare with the horror of the reality around him.
I loved watching these two fight, beat the crap out of each other, confront death around every corner and eventually build what can only be called a hesitant mutual respect.
Wahlberg brings a true menace to his interrogation scenes, going off "Goodfellas" style with a mad energy that's truly terrifying. Like when you're watching 'Dexter", you give him grace because he only does it to the despicable racist monsters that truly deserve it, at least when he's working under the table for the FBI.
This the first film by Director Elegance Bratton that I've seen, and it's incredibly well structured and styled. He's chosen a superb team of craftspeople around him, including Terence Blanchard, whose music score is excellent from first scene to last.
I think Diane Warren may finally win that Academy Award after her 17 nominations without a win. Her end title song "By Any Means" performed by The Isley Brothers and David Kushner is the best one I've heard in years.
The ending is powerful and the closing moments offer up on screen summaries of the true history after the investigation depicted. Those facts hit you like a ton of bricks.
Powerfully acted and well told, BY ANY MEANS brings true grit and power to the justice and revenge depicted. Like the tough 70's films it so often echoes in feel, it's not interested in your feelings or take on what happens, it barrels over you with bloody, propulsive scenes that escalate to a fever pitch.
It's an A by any measure and not for the faint of heart.
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