Mark Wahlberg (left) as Gregory Scarpa Sr. and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Wayne Strider. Photograph: Paramount Pictures / Click to view the trailer.
After a dedicated performance by Mark Wahlberg as Gregory Scarpa Sr., a brutal real-life mob hitman working for the FBI, By Any Means takes a nosedive when Scarpa shoots a barking dog.
This happens midway through the film, after laughs and an anticipatory smirk at what Wahlberg and his gigantic prosthetic nose for mayhem bring to the screen next.
After that, American filmmaker Elegance Bratton’s depiction of the volatile, racially motivated murders and violence in 1966 Mississippi becomes nothing more than a senseless bloodfest of gunfire and close-up torture scenes.
In the film, Scarpa slowly seduces the devil out of his partner in a suit Wayne Strider, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, whom Scarpa calls his “driver.”
Still, Mateen II’s understated performance is overshadowed by Wahlberg’s exuberance and prior work.
Back in the day, Mateen II impressed viewers as an artist pulled into the mythos of Candyman in the titular 2021 film, with Candyman as the mind-mesmerizing symbol of Black trauma—bees and a rusty hook representing the thousands of voices of victims of systemic violence.
He also gave Aquaman a worthy adversary as Black Manta.
Both leading men—Mateen II, who has made a name for himself in the past decade, and Wahlberg, who has created many memorable characters in film over the past three decades—have impressed with much better work while working with a better script and a more grounded director.
‘By Any Means’ opens in cinemas on September 4.
FILM DETAILS
Title: By Any Means
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Wahlberg, Nicole Beharie
Director: Elegance Bratton
Screenwriter: Sascha Penn
Running time: 107 minutes