For a certain group of folks, and you can count me among them, By Any Means is one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year. Not because it stars Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, although that’s a pretty good reason. But because this true crime saga about a key moment in the civil rights movement is directed by Elegance Bratton, a military vet whose breakthrough film, The Inspection, showed him to be a filmmaker with a sharp eye on the injustices faced by Black people in service to their country.
In that sense, By Any Means fits Bratton’s themes perfectly. The film stars Wahlberg as mafia hitman and informant Gregory Scarpa, with Abdul-Mateen as FBI agent Wayne Strider. Set in the 1960s, Scarpa and Strider must team up to investigate the murders of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi.
Also in the cast are Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, Ethan Embry, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, David Strathairn, and Giancarlo Esposito as civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer, whose murder Scarpa also helped the FBI investigate.
Paramount Pictures will release By Any Means in theaters on September 4th.
