By Any Means Review
Like Green Book but with a mobster beating up white supremacists. So, like Green Book.
The murder of a civil rights leader in 1966 Mississippi brings massive national attention, and with the establishment breathing down their neck, and no one wanting to talk, the FBI assign two unlikely candidates to the case. The first is FBI Agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a former local just back from Chicago and one of the few black FBI agents on the force. The second is notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), imported from New York. There are no rules but one; figure out the case, by any means.
By Any Means isn’t your typical story of the deep south fighting racism and injustice in the era of the KKK. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have any pathos, or nuance, or some of the trappings that come with these films. There’s a starry looking cast. There’s the terse interactions with outright racist, and slightly less outright racist, enemies and colleagues respectively. And of course, there’s a wonderful lead performance by Yahya Abdul-Mateen.
Abdul-Mateen is really quite nuanced in his performance. Sometimes it’s almost a little robotic or one note, but it’s the gravitas and the restraint that this character has to have in the time and place he finds himself. Director Elegance Bratton gives him a pair of wonderful ‘overflow’ moments; firstly when his wife is attacked, and secondly in a final hangar sequence where he just loses it. But even then, in both moments this is a very restrained and collected performance; even more so than some of his usual work.
Conversely, there’s Mark Wahlberg. And that’s where this movie both goes off the rails, and finds new, more entertaining ones. Because Bratton clearly realises that the most unique element of this story, as tragic as that may be, isn’t in making this a movie about a black cop in the deep south in the civil rights movement era; that’s been done. But one about that PLUS a mobster the FBI calls in to solve its deep south problems by any means, with no rules? Now that’s fresh.
Wahlberg absolutely throws himself into this material. Under some questionable, and frankly unnecessary prosthetics, he swings for the fences figuratively, and the kneecaps literally. There are wry jokes, brutal moments and a genuine feeling between the two erstwhile colleagues. Ultimately, it’s what separates this movie from a crowded drama field. Sure, there are better and more nuanced takes on this material, but none quite as satisfying or fun.
