By Any Means Review: Mark Wahlberg Movie Doesn't Shy Away From Racial Violence
The film follows a reluctant FBI partnership that uses a Brooklyn hitman’s violence to uncover the bodies of three missing civil rights activists.
- Paramount Pictures releases 'By Any Means' in theaters on September 4, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as FBI Agent Wayne Strider and Mark Wahlberg as Gregory Scarpa.
- Set in 1966 Mississippi, the narrative centers on the firebombing murder of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer by the Ku Klux Klan, prompting authorities to enlist the off-the-books Scarpa.
- Strider, a by-the-book Black agent, clashes with the casually violent Scarpa, who operates without warrants; their dynamic draws comparisons to classic films like '48 Hrs.'
- While based on true events, the film employs a 'Composite' character for Strider, as press materials note; critics describe the movie as balancing historical heft with stylized violence.
- Directed by Elegance Bratton, the film depicts 1960s racial violence, though reviewers note the screenplay omits the FBI's active surveillance of figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Associated Press News
Movie Review: 'By Any Means' is a propulsive action thriller set against the Civil Rights Movement
Hollywood introduces a new mismatched buddy cop duo with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg in “By Any Means.”
‘By Any Means’ Review: Mark Wahlberg Teaches the Virtues of Violence in Elegance Bratton’s Bluntly Drawn Historical Thriller
In Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book,” Viggo Mortensen’s driver famously introduces Mahersahala Ali’s concert pianist to fried chicken. The white man, an expert, proves his cultural bona fides to the Black protagonist, the student. The pair of outsiders share a moment of bonding, and America’s wounds are salved. That movie felt dated in 2018. Eight years […]
By Any Means Review: Mark Wahlberg Movie Doesn't Shy Away From Racial Violence
Set in Mississippi in 1966, By Any Means takes place at one of the darkest and most volatile points in American history. Racial tensions are reaching a boiling point, the Ku Klux Klan is operating with terrifying freedom, and violence against Black Americans is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Against this backdrop, the film follows […] The post By Any Means Review: Mark Wahlberg Movie Doesn’t Shy Away From Racial Violence appeared fir…
'By Any Means' Review: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg Fight the Klan in Uneven but Effective Crime Drama
Elegance Bratton’s new crime drama “By Any Means” has one hell of a pitch. It’s about a by-the-book Black FBI agent who teams up with an Italian-American mafia hitman to fight the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1966. That sounds like the best cop show ever, and maybe some day it will be, with Special Agent Wayne Strider and bullish lout Gregory Scarpa taking down racist scumbags every Tuesday at 9pm Pacific. If the Best Picture winner “In the He…
‘By Any Means’ Review: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg in a Shallow, if Occasionally Gripping, Historical Crime Thriller
Inspired by true events, the latest film by Elegance Bratton ('The Inspection') follows a Black FBI agent who must work with a mob hitman to investigate the murder of a civil rights leader in 1966 Mississippi.
'By Any Means' Rotten Tomatoes Score is In: Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Unlikely Alliance Splits Critics
Films built on unconventional partnerships have always had a certain built-in appeal, especially when they pair characters who would otherwise never cross paths. That premise takes on particular weight when the setting is 1960s Mississippi, one of the most volatile periods in American civil rights history. ‘By Any Means‘ leans hard into that tension, dramatizing...
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