48 Hours buddy cop meets Green Book
Summary
A prosthetic nosed Mark Wahlberg beats up the South while teaching a young black FBI agent how to man up in a bloody reminder of American history.
Plot: When a successful black business owner and activist is killed by the Ku Klux Klan but the locals won’t cooperate, the FBI brings in a mob enforcer who doesn’t have to play by the rules.
Review: Leaving the theater I chatted with a couple who remarked how violent the film we just saw was. And they were right, By Any Means starts off with a bloody and bone crunching interrogation involving a baseball bat and doesn’t shy away from there. Directed by Elegance Bratton and written by Sascha Penn, By Any Means draws real life inspiration from the turbulent 1960’s where America was ending racial segregation and passing Civil Rights Acts. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (the terrific Wonder Man) plays FBI Agent Wayne Strider, newly returned to Mississippi from the North and contending with locals who don’t believe he’s a Federal Agent while investigating hate crimes involving the KKK.
With local law enforcement no help and neighbors afraid to speak up, the FBI sends in Columbo crime family enforcer turned informant Greg Scarpa, the aforementioned Mark Wahlberg with a somewhat distracting enhanced nose, midriff paunch and beefy biceps. We get a bit of a 48 Hours buddy cop meets Green Book racial drama flick here with Strider attempting to be upright and part of the community while Scarpa has no strong code, doesn’t care about the town and slaps, beats and shoots his way to information. There’s selfless and selfish banter from both and they play well off each other. Between knocking heads we get minor philosophical debate on the perspectives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X on how to achieve freedom and equality. A stark reminder of the pain and violence the US has gone through in its past, there’s plenty of collateral damage along the way involving guilty perpetrators and innocent civilians alike.
Wahlberg’s Scarpa is detestable and brash but infinitely interesting to watch, it seems the actor is having a good time under the make up and wiseguy garb. The film doesn’t go too deep exploring racism or the effects of violence and death but provides a well made, entertaining watch. The supporting cast is surprisingly stacked with the likes of Giancarlo Esposito (Captain America: Brave New World), Josh Lucas (Hulk), David Strathairn (Godzilla) and Ethan Embry (Can’t Hardly Wait).