A-Lister’s Ludicrous Fake Nose Dooms Disastrous Crime Drama

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Paramount Pictures For any drama claiming to be “based on a true story,” veracity is important—but only to a degree.

Case in point: By Any Means , which, in an effort to make star Mark Wahlberg look like his real-life counterpart, opts to saddle him with one of the most ridiculous and unnecessary prosthetic noses in cinema history.

Since no one has ever heard of his character Gregory Scarpa, the film’s stab at physical photorealism is both excessive and purposeless, turning his schnoz into a senseless embellishment.

It’s a distraction of laughable proportions—if, also, the sole distinctive aspect of this otherwise sketchy Green Book -esque period piece.

A severe step down from his directorial debut The Inspection , Elegance Bratton’s By Any Means (September 4, in theaters) is a story of racist wrongs and the virtuous vigilantism that made things right.

In 1966, FBI Special Agent Wayne Strider ( Wonder Man ’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) relocates with his wife (Nicole Beharie) from Chicago to his home state of Mississippi.

Despite his badge, Strider is treated disrespectfully by everyone, be it local cops or his boss (David Strathairn), who refuses to assign him to investigate the KKK and learns—via Strider denting a filing cabinet with his fist—that his newest recruit has a latent angry streak.

No matter his temper, Strider is a composed, sharply dressed agent who thinks that the best way to affect Civil Rights change is to follow the letter of the law.

Unfortunately, his belief in the Martin Luther King Jr. playbook takes a hit when his friend Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito), an NAACP president and businessman, is murdered by the Klan for advocating for southern Blacks to vote and offering to pay their “poll tax” as an enticement.

Everyone knows that the man responsible for this heinous slaying is Sam Bowers (Ethan Embry), Hattiesburg’s resident KKK bigwig.

However, because of the white robe-loving organization’s regional clout, few are willing to go on the record, including Dahmer’s potential eyewitness neighbor Rebecca (LisaGay Hamilton).

Thus, Strathairn’s chief, along with a nameless colleague (Josh Lucas), are compelled to seek an alternative avenue to justice.

That would be Scarpa, a hitman and enforcer for New York’s Colombo crime family, as well as an FBI informant who—as detailed by a two-years-earlier prologue—was responsible for helping the feds locate the bodies of three missing Civil Rights workers.

Often sporting a toothpick in his mouth, Scarpa strips out of his fancy suits to do his dirty work in white tank tops.