By Any Means Feature Scores
Explore all 45 feature scores for By Any Means, organized into pros and cons.
Scores by Feature
Summary
45 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.07 (16%)
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Positive 3.5-4.49 (20%)
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Neutral 2.5-3.49 (20%)
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Negative 1.5-2.412 (27%)
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Very negative below 1.58 (18%)
Pros
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The period setting is a standout, with convincing streets, interiors, cars, and décor making 1960s Mississippi feel tangible. Reviewers repeatedly praise the sets and overall period detail.
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The soundtrack is a clear strength, blending period artists with a prominent end-credit title song. Reviewers who mention the music generally praise its energy, atmosphere, and emotional lift.
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The cast is one of the film’s clearest strengths, with the two leads repeatedly carrying material that some found thin or formulaic. Even mixed reviews often credit the performances with keeping the movie watchable.
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Yahya Abdul-Mateen II receives especially strong praise for grounding Wayne with restraint, intensity, and emotional depth. Mark Wahlberg is more divisive, but many still find his broad mobster performance entertaining.
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The 1960s wardrobe is a consistent visual highlight, especially Strider’s suits and the film’s pastel period styling. Critics who discussed the clothes found them polished and convincing.
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The Strider–Scarpa pairing is widely seen as a major draw, with prickly banter and contrasting personalities giving the movie energy. A few critics, however, found their bond underdeveloped or unconvincing.
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The photography is frequently praised for moody lighting, rich color, controlled tracking shots, and striking period imagery. Even detractors often single out the camera work as more sophisticated than the script.
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The supporting ensemble is generally well regarded, with Nicole Beharie, Giancarlo Esposito, LisaGay Hamilton, David Strathairn, and others adding weight to smaller roles. Some critics wish those players had more to do.
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The film can be genuinely upsetting and powerful, especially when depicting racist terror and Strider’s fear and anger. For supportive critics, that intensity gives the movie urgency even when the storytelling is uneven.
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Elegance Bratton earns strong marks for visual control, clear staging, and energetic crime-thriller craftsmanship. Some critics still feel the execution becomes blunt or paint-by-numbers when handling the larger historical and moral questions.
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The movie’s richest strengths are visual: saturated color, moody lighting, period swagger, and carefully composed imagery. A few critics find parts of the look overly contrasty or generic, but the broader response is favorable.
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Terence Blanchard’s jazz-inflected score is frequently praised as tense, atmospheric, and a major mood-setter. One critic finds the emotional scoring overused, but the overall response is strongly positive.
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Despite the conspiracy, violence, and shifting loyalties, one reviewer specifically found the movie easy to follow and always clear about location and motivation.
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At least one enthusiastic critic found the true-crime setup intensely gripping from start to finish, praising the film’s ability to hold the audience in a taut, confrontational mood.
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Wayne Strider’s shift from rule-bound agent to violent avenger is the central arc, and some found it compelling and well acted. Others felt his inner life was too thin or inconsistent for the transformation to fully land.
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A few viewers enjoyed the movie enough to consider another viewing, but others frame it as a solid one-time watch. Repeat appeal appears strongest for fans of the lead pairing and mob-thriller tone.
Cons
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The ending is the most consistent complaint: reviewers repeatedly call it abrupt, anticlimactic, incomplete, or dependent on text cards. Several felt the movie stops just before the payoff its own setup promises.
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Wahlberg’s prosthetic nose and wig are repeatedly singled out as distracting, unnecessary, or outright silly. The period transformation is one of the production’s clearest visual misfires.
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The movie often loses credibility when its heroes commit conspicuous violence with few believable consequences. Critics describe several confrontations, body counts, and chase beats as Hollywood fantasy rather than plausible history.
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The movie is widely described as familiar, derivative, or by-the-numbers despite its unusual real-world premise. Its mashup of civil-rights drama and buddy-cop revenge thriller rarely feels genuinely new.
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The plot follows a familiar buddy-cop and revenge-thriller path, with multiple reviewers saying its turns are predictable or formulaic. The real-life hook is more distinctive than the dramatic structure built around it.
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The central true-crime premise fascinates many reviewers, but the finished story is often judged simplistic, underdeveloped, or structurally incomplete. Strong performances and visual craft keep some viewers engaged despite those narrative problems.
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The movie raises potent questions about racism, institutional failure, pacifism, and retaliatory violence, but many critics say it does not explore them deeply enough. A smaller group finds the moral conflict powerful and meaningful.
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Strong and pervasive language is a clear drawback for reviewers sensitive to profanity. Family-oriented critics specifically flag crude talk, repeated strong language, and rough speech.
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Several critics object to the way the film filters Black civil-rights history through a fictional partnership with a white mobster. Concerns focus on lost political context, white-savior dynamics, and whose story receives the most agency.
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The film’s thesis about violence as a route to justice is deeply divisive. Supporters see righteous urgency and historical meaning; detractors view the revenge framing as morally shallow, reductive, or troubling.
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The graphic violence, torture, strong language, and sexual material make this a poor fit for younger viewers. Family-oriented critics strongly caution against it for children and teens.
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This is emphatically not family-friendly material, with torture, bloody violence, pervasive rough language, and adult sexual content. Family-focused outlets strongly advise caution or avoidance.
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The violence is exceptionally graphic, with torture, beatings, shootings, and bloody revenge throughout. Some reviewers find that intensity cathartic or narratively justified, but many call it excessive, grueling, or upsetting.
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Reviewers broadly agree that the movie takes major liberties with its true-story label, especially through the fictional Wayne Strider and invented interactions. Some accept the dramatization, but many warn against treating it as a straight historical account.
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The dialogue is a weak spot for several critics, who describe it as exposition-heavy, obvious, or underwritten. The banter can still generate humor, but the script rarely finds the nuance its subject invites.
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The screenplay has a strong premise and occasional structure, yet many critics fault shortcuts, weak connective tissue, clichés, and underdeveloped moral questions. The writing is often seen as the main thing holding the movie back.
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A family-focused review flags bedroom sensuality and partial nudity as another reason the film is unsuitable for younger or more conservative audiences.
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One strongly negative reviewer explicitly advises audiences not to spend money on the film, viewing its historical and representational choices as reason enough to skip a ticket.
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The blend of sober civil-rights drama, dark comedy, revenge fantasy, and buddy-cop pulp is one of the film’s biggest fault lines. Some enjoy the levity and energy, while others find the modes clash badly.
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One reviewer felt the film actually needed more time, particularly to clarify relationships, the investigation, and the ending. The complaint is less about excess length than insufficient development.
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One critic argues that the film isolates its characters from the wider political and social life of 1966 Mississippi, making the setting feel more like a sealed dramatic vacuum than a fully lived-in community.
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Pacing reactions vary from brisk and lively to sluggish and uneven. Several reviewers enjoy the forward momentum once the leads are working together, while others note slow stretches and a narrative that fizzles near the end.
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One reviewer felt the movie delivers exactly the familiar thriller promised by its trailer, while another criticized the way its publicity foregrounded certain stars and packaged the story. The promotional framing is therefore contested.
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The historical drama is considered thoughtful in intent but blunt in execution. Its serious material carries weight, though the movie often pivots toward pulp and buddy-cop mechanics.
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Reaction depends heavily on tolerance for brutal revenge fare and historical liberties. Mob-film and old-school crime-thriller fans may have a good time, while viewers sensitive to the framing or factual changes may want to skip it.
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The action ranges from crisp, emotionally charged shootouts and chases to sequences some found implausible or dull. Its pulpy violence works best for viewers who embrace the revenge-thriller mode.
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The humor mostly comes from Scarpa’s blunt personality and the mismatched-pair banter. Several critics welcome that relief, though one moral review objects to making his amorality a source of laughs.
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Entertainment value is sharply split. Some reviewers found the violent buddy-thriller energetic and satisfying, while others found it dull, simplistic, or not worth the watch.
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As a crime thriller and buddy-cop movie, it lands unevenly: some praise the muscular, crowd-pleasing pulp, while others see a slog that cannot reconcile action spectacle with serious historical drama.
Cast & Creators
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Wayne StriderAbdul-Mateen II is the most consistently praised performer, grounding Wayne Strider with restraint, intensity, vulnerability, and quiet moral conflict. Multiple critics describe him as the film’s emotional center and the actor holding its competing tones together.
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Vernon DahmerEsposito makes a strong impression in a brief role as Vernon Dahmer, with critics calling him memorable and part of the film’s strong supporting bench. His limited screen time leaves some wishing the story stayed with Dahmer longer.
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AllisonBeharie earns praise for bringing warmth, concern, and emotional weight to Strider’s wife despite limited material. Several critics specifically wish the role gave her more to do.
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ComposerBlanchard’s tense, jazz-inflected score is repeatedly singled out as a major strength and effective mood-setter. Its smoky atmosphere helps sell both the period setting and the thriller tension.
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DirectorBratton’s direction is often praised for visual control, clear staging, and the ability to give the crime-thriller material energy and beauty. Critics are less united on how effectively he balances pulp violence with the film’s historical and moral ambitions.
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ActorHamilton is praised as part of the strong supporting ensemble, with her frightened witness providing several affecting moments. Her small role adds human stakes to the investigation.
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Gregory ScarpaWahlberg is highly divisive as Gregory Scarpa: some reviewers find him magnetic, funny, fearsome, and hugely entertaining, while others call him miscast, cartoonish, or tonally out of place. Even detractors often acknowledge the energy he brings.
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CinematographerCheng’s moody cinematography earns strong praise for expressive lighting and rich, shadowy compositions. His images give the film a visual sophistication that some critics feel the story itself does not match.
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Agent Roy K MooreStrathairn is singled out as a standout within the FBI ensemble, lending authority to the period drama even though the role itself is relatively limited.
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ActorEmbry’s Klan leader is described as uncomfortably effective, giving the film a threatening antagonist even though some reviewers find the broader villain side underdeveloped.
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SongwriterWarren’s title song receives strong praise from some critics as a memorable end-credit highlight, though another finds the movie’s emotional music too schmaltzy. One reviewer also wishes the song had been integrated more effectively into the ending.
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WriterPenn’s script is credited with a strong premise and, by some, solid structure, but other critics fault thin characterization and insufficient moral depth. The writing is frequently seen as less accomplished than the performances and filmmaking around it.