Other Mommy

 

This review may contain spoilers!

A horror feature based on Josh Malerman's novel 'Incidents Around the House.' This film follows Bela, a young girl who is painfully aware of the problems between her parents that threaten her family's happiness. However, Bela has a friend, 'Other Mommy'. A mysterious entity that helps Bela, but has sinister intentions of wanting to take possession of her.

Horror is the genre that is really having a moment right now. In 2026, we've been treated to an absolutely stacked roster of films like Obsession, Hokum, Resident Evil or 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. But Other Mommy is not like the rest; it's not even punching near films like Undertone. Rob Savage's latest feature is a painful watch that lacks a sense of pacing, decimates its own sense of tension and barely holds a semblance of narrative together between a couple of decent scare motifs. I liked that the stakes for this film started high, that Other Mommy had a tangible presence from the beginning. The fact that there was a physical aspect to this haunting of Bela made it all the more unnerving. Some of those very early sequences in which she steadily made herself known were fairly frightening and disturbing. Even later, there are some great moments with Bela being transported to the ocean or Other Mommy being backlit by the lighthouse at night.

This movie starts with high stakes and the sinister presence established, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, what I should have also realised was that this would be a precursor to an absolutely insane sense of pace. This movie is rushing without purpose, often chasing us along to the next big scare, but rarely feeling like it was lugging the story forward at all. The moment Other Mommy becomes a problem, she remains a problem for the duration of the film. We jump from one house to the next, from a fast food restaurant playground to the eccentric grandmother's house. The film is a chase: stay ahead of the demon that will inevitably just show up once again. In the background, there's family tension that feels poorly explored and unbearably vague. You wonder if this is thematic of impending divorce, or if it's about the mother's infidelity. Ultimately, we get an unusual confessional about the way their family dynamic came to be and an admission that the mother never wanted Bela. This is an important climactic reveal, but the work hasn't been done to get us here. But this is a film that often struggles with tone. Sometimes there will be an absolutely horrendous moment, like Bela being attacked during an anniversary party, only for us to suddenly cut to guests being politely and gently waved off as they slowly depart the household. The script lacks a real sense of itself, and that often leads to a feature that feels comical and not so scary. Watching a squad of ghost detectors rock up to grandma's mansion is a trope that really jumps the shark. Dichen Lachman is a great performer, but the moment we got a séance table involved, I had a feeling we'd be watching one of the weakest scenes of the feature. Even the conclusion struggles to make sense, often sidestepping Bela's confrontation and then twisting the end of Other Mommy into a sucker punch that will probably strike you in the funny bone.

I think some people might have been less than impressed with some of the visual choices in Other Mommy, but I think it's probably the one shining facet at play. There's a very clear intention here to try some inventive scare moments, positioning the camera to really go on a journey and experience each moment differently. I particularly loved the ceiling balloon scene with Other Kelvin (a role that is played superbly and all too briefly by Sean Kaufman). The visual effects are a real mixed bag, but I think that also adds value. It's entirely too difficult to predict how Other Mommy is going to present. Sometimes she's serpentine, others a shadow demon and I loved that imposed image of her under the water as we tilt into the final act. If there is a technical element that really let the feature down it's the score, which is your classic nails against the chalkboard stuff.

Jessica Chastain comfortably gives the best performance, though this falls short of some of her titanic performances in the past. It's also no surprise that Chastain is having the most fun when she gets to play a demonic entity that is from beyond this world. Arabella Olivia Clark leads this film as Bela and is really quite versatile as a young actress. I would have liked to see the final confrontation scene brought down a notch, but the film was well and truly off the rails by that point. Jay Duplass is clearly the weak link in this family unit as the meek Dad who slowly has to learn to fight for his family, and Karen Allen doesn't really flesh out the wise grandma stereotype. Uncle Frank (Moayed) is a side character with a ton of charisma; I could have done with more of him. It would have been stronger if the tension between Chastain, Moayed and Duplass had sincerely been allowed to come to a head.

A script that had no business being viewed as complete. I would give Other Mommy a 2.5/10.

Big Girls Don't Cry

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Big Girls Don't Cry follows Sid, a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in 1990s New Zealand and trying her best to fit in socially with a crowd she aspires to be a part of. 

I found this film a very uncomfortable watch almost till the very last frame. This is really the exact point. Big Girls Don't Cry isn't here to be a coming-of-age story with a rose-tinted glasses approach and warm conclusion. This film takes our protagonist, Sid, and puts her on a truly difficult path of personal identity exploration. Across this film, Sid is exploring her own sense of self and emerging sexual desires. She stumbles through flirtatious and sexual exchanges online, even using her best friend's brother's MSN account to solicit images from other girls. Syd is incredibly isolated in her own exploration of sexual identity, though she clearly falls into the orbit of Lana, a popular girl Sid is crushing on. As she goes through this process, Sid begins to push against her own boundaries, stealing alcohol, sneaking out to parties and engaging in drug use. Her own sense of self really gets tested too. She begins changing the way she wears her clothes, looks at her hair and experiments with make-up. There's a particularly gnarly scene in which she gives herself a belly button piercing. This is a vast range of change and experience to play through, and the whole thing really hinges on Ani Palmer's quite reserved and grounded leading performance.

This is as much a story about trauma as it is a journey of self-discovery. Paloma Schneideman has crafted a narrative that points a glaring finger at the ways young girls and women are failed their entire lives. The manner through which they are hurt, exploited and abused. Sid is often chasing something in this film, but she gives up pieces of herself to do it. Sometimes the autonomy to give up those pieces isn't even there. Social pressures push her into making poor decisions in a vulnerable setting or being forced into sexual encounters that feel like a dark corner more than anything else. One of my least favourite aspects of this feature is that it decides to tell this story by just ending. There is a moment where the story concludes by simply indicating Sid's story will continue to happen and things like this will come again. It's a clear thought but doesn't lend finality very much to the film. In some ways, it left me wondering if Sid has just endured awful things and consequences, but hasn't necessarily grown beyond those moments. Big Girls Don't Cry seems afraid to end; it barely knows how to look forward, which lessened some of the weight of the feature for me.

I also struggle with this trend in films at the moment to have a cast of extremely likeable characters. That's not to say the performances are inherently bad; in fact, it's a fascinating cast. But while you believe in everyone, it's difficult to find someone to root for in this film. Palmer is acting beyond her years in this, but it doesn't change the fact that Sid can be difficult to watch at times. She makes a lot of bad decisions, acts selfishly towards others and is quite manipulative. One of the better young performances in this came from Ngataitangirua Hita, who played Tia. She was this really steady best friend role to Palmer, and you really saw something unwavering in her role's principles that I liked. Noah Taylor gave the best performance of the feature as the complicated father figure, Leo. This was a role that could be creepy at times, a bit abrasive and certainly wasn't the most present father. Yet, he also had this clear fragility to him that I admired. There's a scene near the end of the feature where he actually shows a great deal of care for his youngest daughter that really hits home. Some roles came off quite generic; Lana (Wolfe) was a bit generic as a pretty girl with a mean streak, while the untrustworthy young guys (Blackburn, Boyle and Lee) really left you on edge. I found Rain Spencer fascinating; she was both a sort of guide and a light that was fast blazing out in Sid's life. I wish Canton had gotten more of a chance to do much in her big sister role, but this often felt pushed to the back.

This was a film that might have struggled to frame dialogue scenes at times, but on the whole, it was rather beautiful. It had some amazing picturesque shots, like the Jeep driving along the surf of the beach. But it also did some pretty powerful perspective storytelling. The camera really was the eye of Sid at times: lingering, furtive glances and burning curiosity. The whole thing had a good sense of flow to it, with a pretty precise approach to the editing. There was a very transcendent score that suited moments that felt out of body and freeing perfectly. The soundtrack had a light indie party vibe that really felt true to the world Sid was tethering herself to. It's the sort of aspirational indie coming-of-age tale I haven't really seen New Zealand cinema be inventive enough to branch into before. 

It's nice to see this kind of cinematic ambition coming out of New Zealand. I would give Big Girls Don't Cry a 6.5/10.

Digger

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Digger is a political satire showing a rendition of the life of billionaire and fuel tycoon Digger Rockwell. When Digger's oil drilling platforms create a severe ecological disaster, the whole world pays for it.

It has been a while since I've seen the highly creative talent of Alejandro G. Iñárritu guide a film, and this felt a lot like revisiting the theatrical nature of Birdman. Digger is by nature a performance film, something theatrical that plays up its own sense of satire. This is a film that presents to you a ridiculous calamity that is walked through by moronic individuals who caricature real-life billionaires and political giants. Yet, Digger is about finding truth in tragedy; mimicking the absurdity of these events in pantomime so that the relatable blow is light enough to be swallowed. This is a film that has been mired in speculation, with people wondering what the other aspect of this nutty feature is. The twist that Digger is a performance within a performance isn't especially rewarding; having a moment of reality swirling around an actor's personal fear for his family takes some punch out of the piece. There is a brief glimmer when Cruise breaks scene and argues with Wilde, a scene that really is quite revelatory when it comes to what Plemons has to bring to the feature. Ultimately, the film sort of shrugs and reminds you that this is all show, meandering through a false messiah third-act piece that captures Rcokwell's fall from grace and then hits us with a sci-fi dystopian end that just seems a bit heavy-handed. Digger is a script that proves very daring, but really struggles to maintain a compelling narrative throughline.

I must admit that while I didn't care much for the narrative structure of Digger, I felt it really had some important messaging to say. This is a feature that quite adeptly holds a mirror to the capitalist cowboys that are so often at the head of the ship. Positioning billionaires as leading presidents, watching a political theatre play out as a circus, it even managed to position a personal minister to the president, mirroring the announcement of a similar role in the USA this past week. Digger himself leads a very sheltered life full of falsehoods and luxuries that he clings to. You watch him calculate and consider how he can defer, lie or bully his way out of things going from bad to worse, while staying financially in the green. Even the unnatural way Digger keeps his suffering, dying cat alive is a strong symbol of Digger serving his own needs before others. There's something played for comedy in this that could be harrowingly real; that is the moment in which an internet firewall prevents warnings and reporting of news about a cataclysmic tsunami caused by an American oil rig operation. The scale of secrecy and self-serving deceit feels cartoonish, and yet it only feels a few shades apart from reality.

This script often feels annoyingly at war with itself, with some exceptionally good themes to speak to. It's a massively unique swing in amongst the line-up of 2026 features; it's certainly the most unique thing Tom Cruise has done in years. I was so entirely impressed with him as Rockwell and Markson. You felt that he had such brash bravado as Digger, a greed that presents as all-consuming. His speech to the World nations is a wild ranting rave of a monologue that will remind just how much versatility Cruise actually has. This is a powerhouse, reminding us that if he were in the Oscars race every year, we'd have some fascinating work on our hands. Cruise isn't the only one acting up a storm in this. I've already mentioned the incredibly grounding performances of Plemons and Wilde, who guide the twist aspect of this film. Riz Ahmed's work as Ganesh is something staggering. Ahmed is a scene partner the likes of whom Cruise hasn't rallied against in a long time. This is truly an ensemble piece, and it's made by people like Stuhlbarg, Burke, Kirrane and Mullion all quietly propping this thing up. There are also moments where things go staggeringly too far; I could not take Goodman's president parody and felt it jumped the shark. Sandra Hüller, meanwhile, struggled to connect to anyone else and seemed like an island alone in this feature.

I admire Iñárritu's work and style most of the time, but I often grappled with Digger. There's a clear sense of theatricality to it, but I don't really believe that it begot a visually striking film. There are a few nice visuals, but the constant attempt to 'stage' the camera and give the piece a theatre quality resulted in some average framing and washed-out shots. The moments where special effects were implemented really looked the part, resulting in some transporting scenes. I also thought the film score could barely be called such. This is an array of noise that screeches at the audience. 

It's a pity that Cruise's most ambitious project in years doesn't quite know how to stick the landing. I would give Digger a 4.5/10.

The Love Hypothesis

 

This review may contain spoilers!

The Love Hypothesis is a romance film that adapts Ali Hazelwood's bestselling novel of the same name. In this feature, Olive Smith winds up in a fake relationship with Dr. Carlsen (also known by students as Dr Evil). Olive hopes to convince two people close to her to develop their own relationship, while Carlsen plans to secure his grant for another year by playing the part of a man settling down. But what happens when there's some real chemistry between these two scientists...

I have a fair few misgivings about this film; the romance genre in general feels quite diluted at the moment. I talked about this with another film at the top of this year, People We Meet on Vacation. I see these trendy romance films coming out, spinning out of books that aren't really breaking ground on the genre too much. My issue is that romance films or novels often feel like they have to play by a certain rulebook at the moment, hitting all of the right tropes for the sake of it. Enemies to lovers? Check. One room/bed? Check. Fake dating? Check. Miscommunication? Check. There is rarely a moment where it doesn't feel like we're just walking a similar path that all of these feel-good tales of love have walked before. That's not necessarily a bad thing all of the time, but it matters when the story elements that are unique to this individual story aren't interesting. There is no part of me that really believed in the setting or the characters playing within it. The concept that Olive is an upcoming scientist with something groundbreaking to give to pancreatic cancer research is rarely believable; it also seems unlikely that Dr Carlsen is capable of being a Professor - let alone one who is kicking out or failing a student every other day. I want to believe in what's playing out, but the film just wants to coyly tip us towards chapter 16 most of the time.

That isn't to say this film isn't without something to fall head over heels for. If you're looking for a book boyfriend who doesn't let out his feelings until at least half of the story is done, who growls at anyone who threatens you and who will chivalrously cut his keynote speech short to come support you, then you've found your man. Tom Bateman's portrayal of Dr Adam Carlsen was what really kept me hooked throughout. It's a very fictional, over-the-top role, but it's clear Bateman is really just having some fun with it. The result is the sort of character who would leap perfectly out of the cartoon covers of any romance novel. I also have to say that for all of the narrative failings of The Love Hypothesis (are we seriously still doing the miscommunication trope?), it is actually very sweet. You are often rooting for Adam and Olive to wind up in one another's arms, which is only spurred on by their sweet remarks, teasing and flirting. Lili Reinhart leads this film as Olive, and she seems most in her element when she gets to flirt or toy with a comedic moment. Likewise, Reinhart is one of the major reasons I struggled to believe the greater story of Love Hypothesis: She's not much of a scientist figure. Despite that, there is no denying what she can achieve as a leading performer.

This is a film in which none of the characters generally feel like they'd fit into the university setting that is being painted. But that doesn't mean the performances are bad; in fact, I was pretty delighted by this cast for the most part. Rachel Marsh and Jaboukie Young-White play Reinhart's onscreen best friends, and they both really do a good job at bridging some of the quieter scenes between big moments. Young-White's take on Malcolm is one of conflict; he struggles to take personal responsibility for himself throughout the feature. Marsh and Reinhart, on the other hand, have such an authentic bond of friendship; I also just found Marsh to be a light, hilarious presence. Duvernay didn't fit into this group as neatly, ultimately landing the role of 'the other boyfriend in the group'. Arty Froushan's take on the slimy Harvard Doctor who sexually harasses Olive can't be a comfortable role to play, but Froushan makes for one hell of an antagonist.

The Love Hypothesis could have been more if it tried to have any semblance of style whatsoever. There are incredible moments from the soundtrack; artists like Gracie Abrams, Selena Gomez and HAIM send this film into the stratosphere. But I never found myself feeling the same way about the score. I could load up any direct-to-streaming romance film on Amazon or Netflix and hear the exact same musical themes blasted at me. It reads like there isn't an effort desired to stand out from the crowd. The director of this feature has a TV background, and it absolutely shows in every frame of the film. I could not tell you more than a couple of scenes that were well shot in this. Everything looks so basically framed, simple and like the purpose was to cobble the scene together and move on to the next one. The editing cuts are simple, and I don't think the team behind post-production had ever heard of the art of colour grading your film. The Love Hypothesis is a visual eyesore that knows people will watch it because of the book, Reinhart and Bateman. There's not much else: happily ever after kiss, cut to credits.

Despite some better efforts from the cast, this is a romance as shallow as they come. I would give The Love Hypothesis a 3.5/10.

Resident Evil

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Resident Evil marks the most recent attempt to adapt the video game series of the same name. In this feature, Bryan, a medical courier, finds himself stranded with an important delivery bound for Raccoon City. Plagued by monstrosities and the dead returning to life, Bryan is caught in a fight for survival.

This feature is directed by Zach Cregger, who has directed such hits as Barbarian and Weapons. Cregger has quickly ascended to horror royalty, bringing a fresh approach to the genre that is spawning many other inspired horror films. Resident Evil is Cregger's first time playing in an established world, and he pours nothing but love into this venture. This is a horror film that feels like a descent into darkness. That opening sequence in which his car is flooding the forest with shades of cool white and neon red is gorgeous; made even more so as we watch the vehicle steadily plunge onwards into shadow. That is the sort of film this Resident Evil is. At every turn there is an incredibly inventive set piece brimming with possibility. Comedic choices are really carefully woven through; the tension you feel throughout rides high, and even the jump scares are so well earned. This is a movie that plays like a character moving through video game levels, advancing in difficulty but also skill. The fact that design, atmosphere and experience are all at the forefront of this piece shows that Cregger knows exactly what the audience is after, and rewards them for it. There are few sequences this year that impress me more than the zombies throwing themselves off the buildings towards Bryan.

There is so much to marvel at when it comes to Cregger's vision here, but the film is also made so impressive because it anchors on one character. Bryan is a young guy, pretty unassuming, chasing work for money. His major moral conflict for the film is that his girlfriend Michelle has discovered she is pregnant, and Bryan does not seem certain in himself that he is ready to be a father. Yet, across the film, Bryan is transporting life in the package he is responsible for; he sacrifices himself in an effort to save a child, and he is plagued by a monstrous creature that is family itself coming together. Bryan becomes both haunted by and proves capable of the fear he has from the top of the film: his future as a father. Austin Abrams leads this film in what might be his best role to date. Abrams leads an absolutely relentless feature that simply could not work without his ability as a performer. The way he would bumble through an obstacle, or curse to himself or just do his very best made him such an enduring protagonist right through to the film's tragic ending.

Monsters have always made Resident Evil, and I really enjoyed just how much work went into crafting a good balance of practical and visual effects that brought these beings to life. Whether it was an amalgamation of bodies that had come to life, a maternity ward riddled with horrors, or someone progressively mutating into an abomination moments before credits, this film really had many tricks up its sleeve. But it takes far more than a good-looking creature to really elevate a horror experience beyond the rest; in this film I could not get enough of the score. The Holladays, Hays and Ryan scored this feature, and it is such a thrill. Even when a scene plays light, you feel arrested, waiting for something to upend. It spikes moments of adrenaline, and it pushes those more emotional scenes to a really heartfelt place.

Something that I do think rings true of a Zach Cregger film is that he has mastered horror-comedy; it's an incredible mix. But sometimes there can be moments where the humour is just too in your face and shatters a tense scene. There's a point in the film where people who work for the Umbrella Corporation (Hauser & Reis) wade in, shooting exposition from the hip and pushing into comedic banter territory. This really made a middle moment in the film lose course before finding its feet once more. It was probably more disappointing in the final sequence when bumbling scientists led by Zach Cherry make a very tragic moment a bit lighter than it should have been. This film shines most of the time, but it's only when it really takes its eyes off the tone that this thing really starts to waver.

This is comfortably the best Resident Evil film we've ever had, and one of the top horror features of the year to boot. I would give Resident Evil a 7.5/10.

Practical Magic 2

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Practical Magic 2 adapts Alice Hoffman's novel 'The Book of Magic' and serves as the sequel to Practical Magic (1998). In this film, Sally's daughters are all grown up and have no memory that their family practises magic. However, when Kylie falls in love and her boyfriend is sent into a life-threatening coma, she steals a cursed book in an effort to save him. As Kylie tumbles into a magical world she doesn't know, Sally and Gillian rush to save her.

There's a weirdly authentic return to the 90s throughout most of the film; not a yearning for nor a love letter to the 90s. This was a 90s film dressed in modern-day finery. Practical Magic 2 is a portal back to another time for filmmaking, warts and all. This was a gentle fantasy film, paired with romance, adventure and family elements. All these elements simmered together slowly over the course of the film: a veritable quest to save an Owens woman from her own misadventure and broken heart. You get those trademarks of the 90s along with this: forced romance subplots, a really silly but sincere type of humour and these long exchanges of dialogue that rarely push the plot forward but give you the chance to live in the world a little. What I loved the absolute most when watching this was that this is a film that is pretty unabashed about tackling things character and theme first. The Owens women are the heart of this feature, and they are constantly displaying a deep love for one another. There is a celebration in their sense of family, a tie that goes incredibly deep. Watching them recreate the iconic umbrella scene from the roof should tug on most viewers' heartstrings.

The problem this film makes by stepping back in time is that it is doomed to repeat many of the mistakes of the past. Practical Magic 2 is quite a slog at the best of times; it has no sense of urgency to the threat our protagonists face, nor does it feel particularly purposeful with the pace of its storytelling. The start of the film is a really jumbled reintroduction to familiar faces while loosely tying in an important plot element via a character death. The film is then quite a slow chase for a range of characters, with dawdling romance along the way. The film deals with memory-loss plots, the classic family curse, Sally falling in love (again!) and, probably most annoyingly, introduces an overly convoluted antagonist (Solly McLeod) who is trying to steal the Owens family magic. It's a busy watch, and you feel that sense of being too scattered, too messy, to come together. Rather than learn from the original, pay tribute and try something new, this is just completely making similar narrative choices. Even Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens feels a bit outdated. Bullock looks like she is struggling to re-engage with the material; her habit of stammering through lines or only pushing out half a line to appear flustered wears thin.

Bullock isn't the only returning cast member who struggles to recapture the magic. Dianne Wiest returns as Aunt Jet, and it is a rare scene where I felt like she perfectly understood what was happening around her. Wiest just seemed a bit out of sorts and lost, which made for a bit of an awkward start to the feature. Maisie Williams was cast as Antonia, one of Sally's daughters. But Williams is essentially abandoned from the main storyline very early on, and never gets a chance to really stand out. By contrast, Joey King, who plays Sally's other daughter, Kylie, really does well in this film. King has really had a myriad of roles over the years, but she proves capable as an Owens woman with a broken heart trying to find her own way. Some of the best witches in the film had varying screen time. Stockard Channing's return as Aunt Franny is a complete contrast to Wiest. Channing has a quick wit, plays eccentricity well and manages to be this emotional caretaker for her small family. The other witch I had in mind is Nicole Kidman, who plays Gilly, and gives what I consider the best performance of the feature. She is so magnetic, effortlessly wild and manages a wicked sense of silliness and humour. There are also a couple of romantic leads in Maridueña and Pace; the former feels a bit generic, and the latter has no chemistry with Bullock whatsoever. Watching Lee Pace hand Sandra Bullock a gravy train filled with custard as a romantic gesture was bizarre.

There is a clear visual upgrade this time around; the magic is used more often, and it looks great. The visual effects really are quite polished and never too lofty, even when the film descends into a ridiculous magic off with the bad guy. While the cameras that are being used are vastly more modern, the visual style is markedly poor. There are so many shots here with ugly framing, scrabbling to keep things in the shot or just showing a general lack of creativity with what should be fantastical material. The editing doesn't always splice a scene together nicely either; there are some sequences that make the navigation of a setting poorer. Yet, moments like the musical score harkening back to the adventurous and whimsical style of the 90s are really special. Even the soundtrack, with its collection of iconic female artists ballading their raw power for the world, feels potent. Nothing is quite as iconic as 'Coconut' sung by Harry Nilsson. Midnight margaritas, baby!

In spite of a big, swirly magic third-act showdown, this remains a beautiful continuation about family and sisterhood. I would give Practical Magic 2 a 6.5/10.

By Any Means

 

This review may contain spoilers!

By Any Means is a crime biopic set in the wake of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in which black Americans are still being blocked from the equal opportunity to vote in some states. After a hate crime results in murder in Mississippi, a Federal agent is paired with a mobster on the FBI's books to round up those responsible.

This is a film that takes some pieces of real historical information and weaves a civil rights era biopic out of it that may be approximate to the truth at times. The start of this film does two really different things that kind of demonstrate the main issue with By Any Means. After a sizzle reel from the era demonstrating students who were killed trying to help African-Americans gain the ability to vote is played, we get to see Mark Wahlberg as Scarpa. Wahlberg has that iconic accent, a bit of a mean swagger to him and a ruthlessness that fits the role to a tee. If you can look beyond the bad hair and the prosthetic nose, Wahlberg is here to be a fine lead. But make no mistake, Wahlberg is just here to give this film a bit of an adrenaline spike - to provide 'cool factor'. The fact that he then disappears for twenty minutes while we are delivered the building blocks of a civil rights film is a significant tonal shift the film never stops struggling with. The story around black Americans fighting for their chance to vote, and the animosity in some communities from Americans who still held hatred for black Americans, is delivered in a manner that feels a bit tired. It's not interested in delivering a story that really plunges into those themes; rather, it just wants to give us a blunt-instrument revenge feature.

If there's one thing working for this film, it's the conflict of character between our two leads: Wahlberg and Abdul-Mateen II. Wahlberg's role is a very morally bankrupt figure who believes in vigilante justice and cares little for the civil rights matters he finds himself operating within. Special Agent Wayne Strider, portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is a character who is somewhat reserved and has a very black-and-white moral code. There are instances where he still feels diminished by his fear of being black in a state that has a major Klan presence, and the movie shows him grow in his aggression and drive to mete out his own justice. This pair is really all this movie has going for it at times, but even their dynamic has its flaws. Watching Wahlberg's role debate Martin Luther King Jr. versus Malcolm X felt simplistic and ill-conceived. The framing of Strider growing more capable of fighting for himself due to proximity to Scarpa is deeply troubling from a thematic lens and adds nothing to the civil rights story at the heart of this piece. The fact that this film has the two leads punish two suspect Klansmen by putting them into homosexual positions with one another felt like an odd move in a feature made in 2026 that hadn't corroborated that said event actually happened.

There's a real lack of artistry to this feature, and I often found myself a bit bored by what was visually presented. The camerawork here is dull and tends towards very simple blocking for the framing. There are some moments where the film tends towards action, where the camerawork made the sloppy stunt work quite apparent. The editing is the biggest visual weak point, with some scenes feeling extremely choppy due to poor cutting. The wailing trumpets across the film were more painful than thematic from a musical score standpoint. The soundtrack quietly places the time period but does little else; although 'By Any Means' by The Isley Brothers and David Kushner really caps the film off nicely. 

There are some seasoned performers in this who really stand out, even if they are a bit underutilised. Giancarlo Esposito, portraying this empathetic and inspirational pillar of his community pushing for change, is more than confident in his wheelhouse. Ethan Embry has played some slippery fish in his time, but this Klan toy store owner was reprehensible and one of the better performances in the cast. LisaGay Hamilton presented a witness who comes forward to give some justice and just doesn't manage to land enough of an impression. I was disappointed to see Nicole Beharie have little more to do than be Abdul-Mateen II's concerned wife at home. David Strathairn and Josh Lucas also jump in and out to give some generic top-brass FBI performances.

In case you felt your civil rights biopics were missing some schlocky action, here's Mark Wahlberg with a bad wig and a fake nose for your entertainment purposes. I would give By Any Means a 4/10.