by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $16.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Wahlberg, Giancarlo Esposito, Ethan Embry, Josh Lucas, Nicole Beharie, David Strathairn
Intro:
… a harsh depiction of an even harsher moment in American history\\
By Any Means, the latest by Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) feels like a bladed, if delayed, response to Green Book.
Set in the ‘60s, By Any Means follows FBI Agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and hitman/informant Gregory Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) as they reluctantly team up to solve the murder of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito).
By Any Means exists in a similar realm of deep inner conflict as Bratton’s The Inspection. Except, where that film was ultimately held back by it, this film thrives off that uncertainty. Throughout its tense and uncompromising depictions of violence, even bookended by burnt-amber interrogation kneecappers from Scarpa, the film’s grayscale perspective on ideas of justice put the by-the-book Strider in many a conflicted position.
The extent of his naivete on-screen can get unintentionally hilarious at times (hell, it’s almost a drinking game how many times he flashes his badge to the exact same result), but Abdul-Mateen’s performance grounds the film in the journey of a man dealing with the reality of working on the side of the law… who doubts the efficacy of the law.
The film almost takes a neo-Western approach to civil and legal justice, where the laws as written fail those that they’re meant to protect, and so taking things into one’s own hands becomes the only option left. Violence not as a matter of seeking thrills, but a desperate final manoeuvre.
As well-shot and staged as the film’s shootouts and knuckle-cracking fist fights, and as much fun to see Klansmen get smacked down, this isn’t built like an action flick; it’s a drama punctuated by the chill of violence raised to a vital necessity. In essence, the film treats individual militance much as Malcolm X himself did (“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks” is one quote that comes to mind).
The ideologies of X and Martin Luther King form certain aspects of the film’s own racial perspectives, right down to Strider and Scarpa debating the two on-screen, but even with X’s most famous quote giving the film its name, Strider’s own arc at times feels like a direct reflection of MLK’s. The daunting realisation that his idealism, his faith in the letter of the law, doesn’t match the brutal reality of what he is facing, recalls MLK’s own realisation that his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech had turned into a nightmare.
What we’re getting at with all this is that By Any Means doesn’t play by the same respectability politics and safety parameters that allow works like Green Book to become (however briefly) heralded as ‘important’ while remaining decidedly non-threatening. By Any Means isn’t nice. It isn’t safe. It is brutal and complicated and upfront with the very real threat of racial violence and lynchings, with heavy amounts of scepticism aimed squarely at alphabet mobs like the FBI as far as actually being able, or willing, to stop them (a brief mention of the assistance of “local authorities” during the film’s epilogue hits a particular note of sour irony). It’s the story of ugly solutions to even uglier problems, and polished badges obscured by white robes.
By Any Means is a harsh depiction of an even harsher moment in American history, and it earns every haemorrhage. Abdul-Mateen and Wahlberg work terrifically together, Bratton’s direction and overall handling of the story shows leagues of improvement over the worrying complacency of The Inspection, and the script from Sascha Penn is refreshingly frank and bracing in its abject refusal to play it safe in outlining just how dire the stakes can get and the limits of non-violent resistance.
