By Any Means (2026)

A black FBI agent in 1966 Mississippi is teamed with a mafia hitman to break the murder of the leader of the local chapter of the NAACP.

Okay, let's get this out of the way, this is more inspired by an unconfirmed story than actually based on a true story. I say this because the while the murder is real, the only actual lead character that is real is Mark Wahlberg's hitman who is based on Gregory Scarpa a mean and nasty hitman who the FBI allegedly used when illegal methods were needed.  Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Agent Strider is said, in sources outside the film, to be based on Lindley DeVecchio, though the film does not state that, it simply states that it is based on an unnamed Black FBI agent.

Overall, I liked BY ANY MEANS. There are some great things in it, but at the same time one can feel that the filmmakers weren't certain what they wanted to do with the story. Are we doing a mismatched kind of buddy film, or are we going to have a serious look at what has to be done to bring justice? There are some great dramatic pieces and a couple of more violent set pieces that feel out of place. Is this a crowd pleaser or a film to make us think? I don't think the film knows. Thinking about the film over the last almost 24 hours since I saw it, I realize that the lack of picking a tone is what works against the film the most since it never clues us into what we are supposed to feel. I have spent much of the time trying to sort out what the film is, and I have not been able to figure that out.

The other problem with the film is that Strider doesn't arc, so much as lurch. He is a quiet beat down agent who wants to do good, he then is a bit of a bumbler and then he is a force of justice at any cost. There is no real shading to his character until late in the game, with the result that emotionally we don't fully feel his change from a good man to something else. There is a sense that things were left/cut out to keep the film moving and under two hours. We can go with his lurching, but it I just wish it was smoother because there is so much to the character that I wanted to like him more.

I like that there is a moral ambiguity to the film. The film truly makes you question whether we need to do something "by any means" to bring about change.  We watch that battle in the Strider character who wants to be the good guy but sees sometimes when fighting evil one must do evil things. It's an argument many people will not like but makes sense within the context of the film works.

Is the film perfect? No. But it does entertain and it is the first Hollywood film in a long while that actually feels like it genuinely wants to start a discussion about race and justice by not giving us pat feel-good answers.

Definitely worth a look.