By Any Means review

BY ANY MEANS: 

SOLID YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II/MARK WAHLBERG TEAM-UP! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg in By Any Means

 

            Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ambulance, Wonder Man) and Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, The Fighter, Transformers 4 and 5) join forces to solve a series of civil rights leader murders in By Any Means, the new film from Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) and is inspired by the true story of FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio and mafia hitman turned informant Gregory Scarpa. I thought the movie looked good when I saw the trailer, though I don’t know anything about the real-life events or people; it seemed like a decent buddy crime thriller with Wahlberg and Mateen II that also hits on some heavy social issues. 

            I didn’t see Bratton’s previous film, The Inspection, so this is my first exposure to his work and…yeah, I like this movie. It’s not a great film, and I’ve seen other movies of this magnitude that handled this sort of setup and subject matter better, like Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, but what makes it work well is the chemistry between the two leads, who are great. 

            The film is set in 1966 Mississippi and follows FBI agent Wayne Strider (Mateen II, the movie’s stand-in for Lindley DeVeechio, who is forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Gregory Scarpa (Wahlberg) to investigate a series of murders of civil rights leaders. Strider soon finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur,r and when the system is broken, these two men, en divided on everything, agree on one thing: The law is limitless; they’re not. 

            The film also stars Nicole Beharie (Sleepy Hollow, 42, Miss Juneteenth), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Vernon Dahmer, Josh Lucas (A Beautiful Mind, The Lincoln Lawyer, Ford v. Ferrari), David Strathairn (Lincoln, Nomadland, Nightmare Alley), Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do!, Blindspotting, Christy), LisaGay Hamilton (Jackie Brown, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Vice), and LaChanze (Hercules, The Help, Highest 2 Lowest). 

            Overall, By Any Means doesn’t really do anything new with this kind of genre and gives the exact movie you’d expect, but what makes the film are Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg’s performances. It is so much fun to watch these two together, with Mateen II being the straight man to Wahlberg’s psychotic antics; they bounce off each other extremely well and make the movie an entertaining ride. 

            It’s fun watching and hearing them bicker and fight with each other while trying to investigate the murders. Honestly, I could just watch an entire movie where it’s the two of them sitting down in a diner or something and talking to each other for two hours and still come out satisfied; that’s how good their chemistry is here. 

            Because this is a film set in the 60s during the Civil Rights Movement, it touches on a lot of social issues and themes of racial prejudice, and it is very effective,e though I felt BlacKkKlansman was a lot more impactful with its themes. The ending of that movie stayed with me after I was done watching it; this didn’t really have the same effect, but it’s all done well, and they are important and relevant topics in our culture that should and must be discussed and explored. 

            The plot is your standard buddy movie and hits all the notes you’d expect from a film like this: the duo doesn’t get along, one of them is aggressive and violent, there’s a falling out in the second act, they get back together, and arrest and kill some fucking racists. Not gonna lie though, it is very satisfying and cathartic seeing white supremacists getting beaten to a pulp by Mark Wahlberg; that should be the typical punishment for being a racist. 

            By Any Means isn’t really a movie you gotta flock out to see immediately, but it’s a good discount day or AMC A-List or Regal Unlimited film with amazing performances by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg and an engaging enough story even if it is very run-of-the-mill and does a lot of buddy movie clichés. The chemistry between the two leads is more than enough to at least give it a watch, whether in theaters or on streaming.