By Any Means: Film Review

"By Any Means"Directed by Elegance BrattonWritten by Sascha PennStarring Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II, Mark Wahlberg, Giancarlo Esposito, Nicole BeharieRated R for violence/bloody images and pervasive languageRuntime: 107 minutesRelease Date: September 4, 2026

Final Thought

By Any Means struggles to overcome its standard direction and "copaganda" feel.

Rating

★★.5 / 5

Logline

From Paramount Pictures:

Based on a true story, a young Black FBI agent is sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa, he finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur.

Review: "Speaking of Copaganda..."

*Note: The underlined portions are hyperlinks.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn't say that I trust the FBI. I'd go further to say I don't trust the government. I'm not saying the moon landing was fake, or Area 51 is teeming with aliens, but the government and the FBI don't have the best track record with telling the truth. Being Black in this country (with roots very close to the setting of this story), there's a different level of distrust with that government entity, as the historic and specific delegation of Black activist groups by them as extremist organizations will forever leave me looking at them sideways. By Any Means, the second film from Elegance Bratton, takes an under-known story from that era and positions the FBI at the center... and it's left me looking sideways.

By Any Means tells the true story of a young Black FBI agent named Wayne Strider (unnamed in FBI reports; played by Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II). After the firebombing and murder of voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan, Strider gets put on special assignment to "handle" Greg Scarpa (played by Mark Wahlberg), a violent and rambunctious Italian man from Brooklyn who knows how to get answers. Together, the two men must strike a balance between lawful and just to find the perpetrators of the senseless crime.

This film is an interesting experiment - a stylized police thriller set in the civil rights era - and the execution is almost there. Tonally, the film mostly works. It balances the dramatic and comedic moments well and fluidly, though the comedy here does have a curious place. The basic concept of a Black FBI agent in the 1960s intrigues me, and the true-life event on which its based deserves platforming, but the presence of the white man here complicates what I find interesting as it harkens back to a dated era of race filmmaking.

In the cinematic tradition of Sidney Poitier-led race films like The Defiant Ones (1958) or, more aptly, In the Heat of the Night (1967), which also serves as clear story and score influence here, By Any Means centers on two men - one Black, one White - who have to set aside their differences for a common goal. Those films worked at the time because of their time. I should hope that this country's understanding of racial politics and cultural difference has deepened enough that stories about race here aren't so simple anymore.

There’s also an unfortunate Green Book (2018, dir. Peter Farrelly) dynamic at play here, where the stoic dignified Black man must be taught how to “loosen up” by his freewheeling Italian counterpart. I would never want my work to be compared to that film (though my eight-year-old opinion might beg to differ), but its reverse-magical-negro narrative couldn’t help but ring through my head during this one.

As far as the film’s first act, I appreciate the spotlight on lesser-known martyrs for the Civil Rights movement. By Any Means opens with archival footage detailing the Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner case where three college students - one Black, two White - were murdered by the Klan in Mississippi. With a mother and grandparents from Mississippi, I’ve known about many of these stories - just last summer, my grandmother made me drive the two of us on a tour of Civil Rights Historical markers in the state, one of them being the site where the three college students’ car was burned - but the case of Vernon Dahmer, around which this film is based, was new to even me. It’s ridiculous that there are still unknown civil rights leaders, but there’s something to be said for at least trying to make them known - even if the attempt reads a bit sensationalized.

Mark Wahlberg in "By Any Means"

By Any Means weirdly spotlights the only time the FBI has ever positively cared about Black people. Obviously, I’m (lightly) exaggerating, but I find it peculiar that the film has an almost pro-FBI edge, especially considering what I know of Bratton’s politics and previous work. This recalled a thought I met on Twitter earlier this week: “Speaking of copaganda, I've been waiting for someone to write about why in the last like 2 years every Black male led TV show is about them being a cop/agent of the state” (@Brieyonce).

Clearly, this is not television, but this uptick in Black characters as government entities in media and the film’s attitude toward federal agencies lead me to the “copaganda” conversation. Simply because police agents are positioned as heroes doesn’t mean the entire project is necessarily “copaganda.”

It’s the seeming applause for the FBI’s “accomplishment,” regardless of the moral implications of how they're going about it, and the simultaneous non-acknowledgment of the bureau’s wrongdoing against the Black community, especially in this time period, that makes it “copaganda.” Worse, it feels like “copaganda,” which funnily makes it poor “copaganda.” I also don’t say this to negate any of the true justice served by the FBI or any government entity as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement or anything else, but I think it’s irresponsible to forget about all the other weird shit they be on most of the time, even if only for an hour and 47 minutes.

I also don’t love the idea of co-opting a limited view of Malcolm X’s defining ideology for a pro-FBI film. White writer Sascha Penn directly (and lazily) uses his famous “by any means necessary” declaration as motivation for these characters to directly perpetuate a historically harmful government agency. Doing this borders on disrespectful to Malcolm’s legacy and is only made worse by the fact that noted hate criminal Mark Wahlberg is delivering the lines. Abdul-Mahteen's Strider’s Martin-to-Malcolm arc is interesting for his character; hearing Wahlberg’s Scarpa verbalize to Strider his appreciation for “that Malcolm X guy” is not.

The core of this argument: It's annoying that it takes a white man in this film for the black man to finally understand what he must do to help his community. Why does Hollywood never want to let us figure it out on our own?

I was curious to finally see Bratton's work as I have been following him for years. On my first trip to the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, I sat through a panel of Black short filmmakers, on which was Elegance Bratton, who was there promoting his queer short film Buck. I never got a chance to see the short film, nor his first feature The Inspection from 2023, but I've kept an eye out for him since. That said, I wish there were a bolder sense of style here. A POV shot featuring Giancarlo Esposito stands out, and the gritty violence significantly adds to the atmosphere, but there are only glimpses of a completely unique directorial vision amidst competent, yet standard, work.

Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II in "By Any Means"

The performances are strong, though, considering the weaknesses of the direction and script. Emmy nominee Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II always has great screen presence, and that is no different here. He's been in more remarkable projects, and I wanted more from his character regarding his internal conflict of being Black and working for the government, but he works with what he's got here and makes a mark. Giancarlo Esposito was a welcome surprise. Mark Wahlberg has some funny line deliveries, but his character frustrated me to no end. I also love to see Nicole Beharie and LaChanze in anything, so I was glad to see them here.

Is By Any Means "copaganda?" Maybe. Is this lightly forgettable and another unfortunate example of a white writer espousing reductive racial politics? Possibly. Is this also a competently made crime thriller that would work better if it weren't set in the 1960s and didn’t end with a Diane Warren song? Yes! At least that's something!

Viewed on 9/2/26 at press screening

Published on 9/3/26

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