‘By Any Means’ Review: Tragic American History Takes the Shape of Classic Buddy Cop Tropes

1 hour ago 12

Vernon Dahmer was an American hero. A self-made businessman who amassed great personal wealth from his grocery store in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Dahmer spent much of his adult life advancing the American Civil Rights movement. Along with running his local chapter of the NAACP, he publicly promised to foot the bill for any Black citizen who wanted to vote but could not afford to pay the state’s unconstitutional poll tax. The activism made him a pariah among segregationists, and he was brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1966.

Gregory Scarpa was a vicious hitman for the Colombo crime family who allegedly amassed more than 60 kills. He eventually turned informant for the FBI and was sent to do dirty work on ugly cases in the American South throughout the ’60s and ’70s. While the Bureau has not formally acknowledged its relationship with him, sworn testimony from witnesses suggests that he was sent to look into Dahmer’s murder.

Those true facts provide the foundation for Elegance Bratton’s “By Any Means,” but the film introduces plenty of fiction in its quest to entertain. Bratton casts Mark Wahlberg as Scarpa alongside Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who plays a fictional FBI agent named Wayne Strider tasked with handling the gangster and indulging his unorthodox methods. The pairing of a buttoned-up G-man with a loose cannon capo creates room for plenty of friction, and it’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that the unenthusiastic partners each have something to learn from the other. The finished product has more in common with “Lethal Weapon” than “Malcolm X,” but Bratton and screenwriter Sascha Penn deserve credit for executing those buddy-cop tropes effectively without losing sight of the horrific historical backdrop.

Abdul-Mateen’s Strider might not be real, but the discrimination he faces certainly was. Despite the monumental achievement of becoming one of the only Black agents in the FBI, he spends much of his time at work being ignored and wondering why so many hate crimes remain unsolved. When he leaves the office to investigate crime scenes, he’s often belittled by racists on the local police squad — flashing his badge is more likely to get him arrested for impersonating an agent than command anyone’s respect. But he endures the persecution because he sincerely believes in the idea of justice and, much like his mentor Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito), thinks it’s crucial that Black people participate in America’s founding principles.

Vernon’s death crushes Wayne, but in a dark bit of irony, it creates the kind of career advancement opportunity he’s been desperately craving. He jumps at the chance to take on the special assignment and bring the Klan to justice — it’s not hard to solve a murder committed with a burning cross in the yard of a Civil Rights leader, so his real task is gathering enough sworn witness statements to hold up a conviction in court. He’s a company man to his core, and the paperwork-centric task is a perfect match for his skillset.

His hopes of a by-the-book investigation are quickly squashed when he shows up at a Mobile, Alabama, hotel to pick up his partner and finds him partying with a prostitute. Scarpa tolerates his work for the Bureau (he certainly likes the leeway it affords him to indulge in other activities on the side), but he takes no pride in the institution or its principles. His motor mouth and lack of respect for rules grate on Wayne, but he comes through for his partner when it counts. When they’re pulled over on an empty highway by a racist cop who clearly has no intention of enforcing Wayne’s rights, Greg shoots him in cold blood before the guy has a chance to shoot his new partner. Wayne’s first instinct is to call in the death of a police officer, but Greg insists that they move along and threatens to frame Wayne for the murder if they don’t find a place to have dinner first.

That’s the kind of pulp that makes up the majority of “By Any Means.” While the film begins by immersing us in its detailed historical context, it quickly pivots into a competently entertaining version of Hollywood revenge fare. To Bratton and Penn’s credit, the film always seems to know which scenes call for nuance and which ones require black-and-white comic book morality. Other than Wahlberg’s Scarpa, every white character in the film seems like a sniveling racist whose insecurity seeps through their pores as they condescend to Wayne, and every Black character is a loving family member and philosopher who contains multitudes. The real world is never so simple, but it’s a perfect artistic choice for a film that aims to whip audiences into a frenzy before delivering the cathartic bloodshed its antagonists so blatantly deserve.

There’s no denying that the main character arcs — like Wayne learning that rules only get you so far, and you sometimes have to stand up for yourself by any means necessary — rely on tropes that we’ve seen before. But don’t confuse that familiarity with two-dimensional storytelling, as both partners come across as fully formed human beings with their own goals who just happened to cross paths at the right time. Both actors rise to the occasion: Abdul-Mateen’s face constantly reveals the internal calculations of a man who has spent his life learning to accept the indignities of an unfair world to earn a place in it, while Wahlberg embodies his mafioso role with just enough restraint to keep it from becoming a caricature.

“By Any Means” can feel formulaic when compared to the richness of Bratton’s debut feature “The Inspection.” But even if it loses some of that film’s artistry, it makes up for it with spectacle. By hiding a few pieces of real substance within an entertaining exterior, “By Any Means” achieves the kind of middle ground that so many filmmakers spend their careers chasing. Those already on board with its message about America’s past sins will undoubtedly enjoy the protagonists’ quest for justice, and the riveting packaging might also introduce its historical subject matter to a few of the uninitiated.