By Any Means

Those already on board with its message about America’s past sins will undoubtedly enjoy the protagonists’ quest for justice, and the riveting packaging might also introduce its historical subject matter to a few of the uninitiated.

Bratton and scriptwriter Sascha Penn artfully straddle the various divides and historical animosities while delivering a propulsive, muscular and unvarnished action thriller, a sort of “Mississippi Burning” for a new generation.

The filmmakers' attempts to blend historical events with thriller tropes and a message about the horrors of 1960s Southern racism result in an uneven production.

Elegance Bratton‘s “By Any Means” sits discomfitingly between exploitation picture and sober-eyed historical race drama, and can’t quite find a clear path to either.

The marriage of familiar story beats and less familiar history proves an awkward and uneasy one — albeit one still capable, here and there, of producing nasty thrills.

It’s a mess of a thing, burdened by Wahlberg’s hammy impersonation and co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II floundering to find a center for his character, special agent Wayne Strider.

The movie’s glib and muted in its impact, right from the start. Screenwriter Penn makes the bickering cliched and the actors do nothing to stop him.

Allegedly based on true events, By Any Means rings false on many levels. Set mostly in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1966, roughly two years after Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman disappeared near the tiny town of Philadelphia about a two hours drive to the northeast. Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), a former gangster from Brooklyn, New York in an unofficial capacity for the FBI breaks open the case involving the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, by using so called "enhanced interrogation techniques." When Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito) , a local businessman and civil rights activist is attacked and killed in Hattiesburg, Scarpa is recruited to assist in that case. He's teamed up with Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), one of the few Black FBI Agents on the force, and a Hattiesburg local. Up until now, Strider has been acting as little more than a glorified file clerk, so he's eager to investigate the death of his friend Dahmer even if it's with someone from outside the department like Scarpa. However, Strider gets more than he bargained for with Scarpa, who has little regard for local customs and standard investigation techniques. As a local, Strider knows how get the Black locals to open up and assist with his investigation, but at the same time understands his limitations in dealing with whites including local law enforcement who have no respect for him or his position. Predictably, this difference in approach causes a lot of tension between Scarpa and Strider which plays an outsized role in the narrative. With more restraint and care, this could have made this police procedural compelling. However, Sascha Penn's overblown script plays like an odd mix of Mississippi Burning, Green Book, and Goodfellas. Elegance Bratton's direction is serviceable with standout performances by Esposito and LisaGay Hamilton as a witness to Dahmer's attack. As far as the basic details (irrespective of the factual details of the investigation), there seems to be little regard for accuracy. For example, the hairstyles suggest the early 1970s, not the mid-1960s in the Deep South. While some northern hippies and intellectuals might have started to let their hair grow out a bit, for white men in Mississippi, this was still the era of the crew cut. Also, the Georgia filming locations are a poor substitute for Hattiesburg with homes that were obviously built in the mid-20th century. They are just too new and modern than what you would expect particularly in Black and working class neighborhoods. Overall, fans of revenge vendetta films might get some pleasure due to the shear volume of violence. If Scarpa were Black, his character might remind you of the lead of a blaxploitation film from the 1970s sticking it to the Man, but for contemporary audiences he's a caricature from countless Italian mobster stories.

• Overall good. Sitting close to "very good"• Entertaining. Some times though my mind wanders.• Pacing is good, though more tight would have improved it.• Yahya is very good, and gives the strongest perofmrance. His character is likeable and created genunine emotional investment in me. There was some emotional scenes that actually moved me and I could sense a tear.• Wahlberg give his usual normal solid performance. Not exceptional but solid. He is a good actor and I like him.• The chemistry between them is good and works. The dialogue also works and is very good.• I especially enjoyed the action, it feels grounded, real, and believable. Our main character is not all of a sudden superman.• The realism makes the danger feel real. Although no individual sequence is unforgetable. • Story is somewhat predictable. • It does not hurt the movie soo much though as the payoff is satisfying. I got gratification in seeing what I hope would happen, happen.• Ending lands well.• Good period cinematagoraphy. Streets, cars, lightning, and locations are convincing. • Score good. • Historical inspiration adds to interest.• But the character depth is the weakness. I like the protagonists but do not care about them deeply.• A top movie requires more character development, which would push emotional investment as well.• Fun to watch at cinema but yes you can watch this one on streaming as well, if money is tight then I would say wait. Unlike Oak Street which I just saw which I think is going to be more enjoyable on the big screen.• This does not have rewatch potential. • Overall I did not leave thinking wow what a movie, but I did leave thinking that was a good movie. That keeps it at 6 instead of 7. But it is close to the border. Just with a bit of an extra layer it would get over.

By Any Means takes institutional racism, the FBI, voting rights, the Mafia, the Ku Klux Klan, and a true story full of gray areas… and decides the best way to handle all of it is to turn it into a revenge buddy ****, surprisingly, there are moments when it works.Yahya Abdul-Mateen II carries the dramatic weight, Mark Wahlberg feels like he’s in a completely different movie with that impossible-to-ignore prosthetic nose, and the film keeps shifting between investigation, racial drama, and revenge fantasy until it finally chooses **** catharsis of watching Klan members get a taste of the horror they represent works, but the movie gets there by leaving a lot of interesting material **** feels like there’s a much bigger story hiding inside a thriller that chose the easiest shortcut.

This film is based on a true story that happened in 1966 Mississippi. After the KKK killed a civil rights leaders, a young Black FBI agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is put on the case. Since it’s the South, his efforts run into constant discrimination, so a mafia hitman (Mark Wahlberg) is sent from New York to get results. Abdul-Mateen II is the solid center of the film and he’s OK, while Wahlberg (in a prosthetic nose) hams it up with his brusque attitude. There’s an attempt to add an action thriller aspect to the historical events, but it’s uneven in approach and execution. The combo of outrageous racism and violent encounters has been done more effectively and although this isn’t a bad film, it never has the emotional impact to make a powerful statement.