By Any Means (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – A notorious mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent team up to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in 1966 Mississippi.

My Take – A mob hitman squaring off against the KKK might sound like a wild genre mashup designed to lure audiences, but the premise carries unsettling truth. In 1964, the FBI allegedly enlisted Mafia enforcer Gregory Scarpa to interrogate Klansmen in Mississippi, extracting the location of three murdered civil rights workers.

Then two years later, after the assassination of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer, Scarpa was reportedly used again—his brutal methods whispered about but never officially detailed. One of these encounters was fictionalized in Mississippi Burning (1988), though the Scarpa figure was replaced by a Black character.

The second case remains shrouded in mystery, and it’s this shadowed history that director Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) seizes for his sophomore feature—a politically charged drama about the FBI’s unlikely alliance with the mob for “off the books” operations. It’s the kind of incredible story that might have thrived as a limited streaming series, giving its larger themes room to breathe. Yet on screen, strong performances and Bratton’s muscular direction shape it into a morally tangled thriller. Familiar beats are delivered with such conviction that they resonate with genuine tension.

Written by Sascha Penn, the film straddles divides and historical animosities with unflinching energy, emerging as a propulsive, unvarnished action drama—a Mississippi Burning for a new generation. Its release feels pointed, arriving at a moment when white Christian nationalism has once again reared its head.

Sure, the film doesn’t offer the character depth or tidy resolution audiences might crave. But that absence is deliberate. In this world, justice isn’t achieved simply by virtue or righteousness. That’s what makes the film compelling: it acknowledges the moral compromises baked into the pursuit of truth. A familiar road, yes—but one paved with performances and storytelling that make the journey worth taking.

Set in 1960s, the story mainly follows Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a Black FBI agent newly assigned to Mississippi after years in Chicago. Returning to his home state, Wayne hopes to protect the community he grew up in, but instead finds himself sidelined to desk duty by superiors unwilling to confront racist violence. At a local gathering with his wife Allison (Nicole Beharie), Wayne witnesses Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito), a respected Black businessman, pledge to pay the poll tax for poor neighbors barred from voting.

The gesture makes Dahmer a target—and the case deeply personal for Wayne. Initially, Wayne’s bosses, Special Agent Roy K. Moore (David Strathairn) and Special Agent Everett Rhodes (Josh Lucas), refuse to authorize an investigation, citing the futility of pursuing justice under laws designed to shield the guilty.

But the Bureau soon unveils a clandestine plan: enlist Mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) to infiltrate the Klan. Wayne is ordered to shadow Scarpa, ask no questions, and let the mob enforcer lead an off-the-books mission to hunt down the killers.

This is one of those “based on true events” dramas that lets filmmakers have their nonfiction cake and eat it fictionally, too. While it may sound fanciful that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI would enlist a mob hitman to hunt the KKK, Scarpa was real, but what isn’t real is his Bureau partner, a composite figure created for narrative effect.

At the film’s core lies the volatile interaction between the hitman and the agent, and the lingering question of whether violence can ever serve as justice. Scarpa’s methods—skull-smashing, bone-breaking, baseball bats to kneecaps, guns shoved into mouths—leave his partner stunned. Excessive though it may be, there’s a visceral thrill in watching cowardly Klansmen beaten bloody.

Surprisingly, the film resists the easy trope of unlikely friendship. Instead, it zeroes in on Strider’s mounting frustration and reluctant acceptance that breaking his moral code may be the only way forward. It doesn’t flinch from the brutal realities of that compromise, nor from the casually savage world in which it’s required to make change. Bratton’s film proves remarkably effective at times, balancing genre thrills with moments of tragic power.

The film eventually careens into a blood-soaked finale, but it never lets itself off the hook. That complexity makes its abrupt ending feel frustratingly perfect—just as the story seems to be deepening, it cuts off. Yet it leaves behind a potent new screen pairing of an FBI agent and a hitman bound together in a morally compromised pursuit of justice.

Performance wise, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II continues to prove himself among the finest actors working today. His portrayal of Strider is layered with conviction and vulnerability, a man torn between faith in the rule of law and the crushing reality of its failures. Abdul-Mateen II makes us feel every ounce of his conflict, and the film’s closing moment—an exhausted, uncertain pause—lands with quiet power, underscoring just how magnetic he is on screen.

Mark Wahlberg, by contrast, leans fully into Scarpa’s swagger. He plays the mob hitman with cocky bravado and a streak of sleaze, clearly relishing the role. There’s a blunt, almost feral energy to his performance that makes him the perfect foil to Strider’s moral restraint. Surrounding them is a strong ensemble.

Giancarlo Esposito delivers his usual gravitas, while Nicole Beharie, LisaGay Hamilton, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, Ethan Embry, and LaChanze all add texture to the world. The script doesn’t give these supporting players much room to breathe beyond their function in Strider’s arc, but each actor makes the most of what they’re given, fleshing out the film’s atmosphere with conviction. On the whole, ‘By Any Means‘ is a familiar yet gripping Civil Rights–era thriller, elevated by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s depth and Mark Wahlberg’s swagger.