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IR Film Review: BY ANY MEANS [Paramount]
Doing a thriller/civil rights drama is always a tricky sell in terms of audiences but also an important story to tell while also making it tense and edgy and adding entertainment value....not a small order. “By Any Means” pairs Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of "Aquaman" fame as an FBI agent named Strider who returns to Mississippi after a stint in Chicago trying to some good in the Deep South in 1966. When a local black businessman named Dahmeris murdered, the Feds brings in an external consultant in tough man Greg Scarpa Jr. Mark Wahlberg takes on this character with gusto never judging him but playing him straight, warts and all with a suave streak and a nasty follow through.
IR Film Review: NIGHTMARE ALLEY [Searchlight]
Guillermo De Toro has always worked in the macabre but normally always works within the context of folklore. With "Nightmare Alley", his context is a little different. Granted this is a remake in most ways of the Tyrone Powers film from the 40s but it does take on some resonance today. It is more a character piece on the corruption of power from a perspective that is both Darwinian but also Machiavellian in way.