‘By Any Means’ Rotten Tomatoes Score is In: Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Unlikely Alliance Splits Critics

Films built on unconventional partnerships have always had a certain built-in appeal, especially when they pair characters who would otherwise never cross paths. That premise takes on particular weight when the setting is 1960s Mississippi, one of the most volatile periods in American civil rights history.

‘By Any Means‘ leans hard into that tension, dramatizing the unlikely alliance between a Black FBI agent and a mafia hitman as they investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Director Elegance Bratton, whose previous film “The Inspection” earned acclaim for its intimate character study, takes on considerably more studio-scale material this time around.

Now that the film has hit theaters on September 4, its critical reception is settling into a genuinely mixed picture. ‘By Any Means’ currently holds a 67% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, reflecting a film that’s earned both real praise and pointed criticism in roughly equal measure.

The film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Special Agent Wayne Strider, a fictionalized character based loosely on real events, alongside Mark Wahlberg as Gregory Scarpa, a real-life Brooklyn mafia hitman who also served as an FBI informant. The script by Sascha Penn draws from the somewhat true story of the unlikely and initially unwilling partnership between the two men as they work together to solve a string of killings tied to Vernon Dahmer’s murder, played by Giancarlo Esposito.

That real-world foundation gives the film an unusual pitch, one that critic reviews have consistently singled out as both a strength and a source of tonal unevenness. TheWrap’s review praised the “excellent work” done by Abdul-Mateen II and Bratton in telling this “strange tale,” while acknowledging the film plays almost like a pilot episode for a series that could have run for years, according to TheWrap.

Not every reviewer walked away convinced the film fully delivers on its ambitious premise. The Hollywood Reporter’s review described the marriage of familiar crime-thriller beats with less familiar civil rights history as “an awkward and uneasy one,” even while conceding the film remains “capable, here and there, of producing nasty thrills,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Next Best Picture’s review took a similar stance, comparing the film to a “tried-and-true studio-tested mixture of ‘Green Book’ and ‘Mississippi Burning,'” arguing that while the film is entertaining enough to hit its fundamental goals, it ultimately falls short of the more ambitious work Bratton has proven capable of delivering in the past, according to Next Best Picture.

MovieWeb’s review took a notably different angle, praising the film’s willingness to graphically depict the era’s white supremacist violence without flinching. The review acknowledged some flaws around “bombastic characterizations and preachy dialogue,” but argued the film “absolutely nails the explosive tension of a time when the subjugated finally had enough,” according to MovieWeb.

Rounding out the cast are Nicole Beharie as Strider’s wife, alongside Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry, and David Strathairn. The film is produced by Hammerstone Studios, Thunder Road Films, Freedom Principle, and North.Five.Six, based on the 2018 Black List script CI-34.

‘By Any Means’ is currently playing exclusively in U.S. theaters through Paramount Pictures, having launched right at the start of Labor Day weekend. No streaming release has been announced yet, and international distribution details remain limited beyond confirmation that north.five.six is handling sales outside the United States.

With reviews landing somewhere between admiration and frustration, ‘By Any Means’ looks set to spark plenty of discussion about how effectively Hollywood can balance genre thrills with genuinely difficult historical material.

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