When I first saw the trailer for By Any Means, I thought the thing that would strike me most about the film was going to be Mark Wahlberg’s prosthetic nose. It’s prominent. And I genuinely wondered whether I’d spend the entire movie distracted by it. I was wrong. By Any Means is a solid historical crime thriller elevated by its remarkable true story and unusual central partnership. It isn’t always subtle, but Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II make it compelling.

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Inspired by a remarkable true story, the By Any Means follows FBI agent Morris Dees as he investigates the murder of civil-rights activist Vernon Dahmer in Mississippi. When traditional methods fail, the Bureau takes the extraordinary step of bringing in Gregory Scarpa, a notorious New York mobster and informant. Together, these men navigate not only a dangerous investigation, but the vast differences between them.

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Narratively, the film plays out with a relatively familiar detective-thriller rhythm. There’s the investigation, the bloodied resistance from those determined to keep the truth buried and the gradually developing bond between two people who might otherwise never have found themselves in the same room.

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But it’s the unusual nature of that partnership that gives the film its spark. Pairing an African-American FBI agent with a New York gangster and asking them to operate in the deeply racist American South creates a fascinating tension. Their differences are always present, but so too is the growing realization that they need one another.

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Mark Wahlberg is clearly having fun as Gregory Scarpa. The performance has plenty of swagger and personality, but he also finds something human beneath the gangster exterior. The prosthetics initially demand your attention, but eventually you stop looking at the nose and begin looking at the man behind it.

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Yahya Abdul-Mateen II gives the film its grounding presence. His performance carries the emotional and historical weight of the story, while his chemistry with Wahlberg allows the film’s central partnership to develop into something surprisingly engaging.

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The film can also be quite gratuitous at times. There are moments that are deliberately uncomfortable to watch, and it certainly isn’t a subtle movie. But that discomfort reflects the ugliness of the world these characters are moving through and their pursuit of justice - by any means necessary. 

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By Any Means is a solid historical crime thriller elevated by its remarkable true story and unusual central partnership. It isn’t always subtle, but Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II make it compelling.