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.