How to Make a Killing is a dark crime comedy thriller produced by A24, directed and written by John Patton Ford, and starring Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow — an heir who systematically murders his estranged wealthy relatives to claim their inheritance. It arrived with the kind of pedigree that should guarantee a good time: a rising Hollywood star, the studio behind some of the sharpest genre films of the last decade, and a sophomore director fresh off the critically praised Emily the Criminal. Somehow, it still manages to be dull.
What How to Make a Killing Actually Gets Right
Powell’s performance as Becket is the film’s most reliable asset. He narrates with charm and a subdued cool that suits the character’s detached worldview, and Nerd Union called him genuinely impressive in the role. Margaret Qualley as Julia is a genuine standout — she transcends the love interest framing and delivers an unexpected character turn that the film barely deserves. The supporting cast is stacked: Topher Grace, Zach Woods, Bill Camp as an uncle who offers Becket a job after the first murder, and Aubrey Plaza in dramatic flashback sequences. On paper, this ensemble should carry even a flimsy script.
The premise itself has real teeth. Becket comes from the disowned branch of a wealthy family — his mother was kicked out and died young in the New Jersey suburbs — and his methodical revenge against obnoxious relatives taps into a greed-and-class-rage vein that audiences are clearly hungry for. The Mary Sue described it as a delicious dark comedy that highlights Powell’s charming ways. That reading is not wrong. There are moments where the film clicks into the register it is aiming for.
Why How to Make a Killing Squanders Its Potential
The problem is that Ford cannot decide what kind of film he is making. The present-day narration framing device, meant to add ironic distance, instead drains tension from every scene. By the time the FBI gets involved and the kills escalate, the film has already told you it is going to be okay — and that is a structural mistake that no amount of inventive murder staging can fix. The Only Critic put it plainly: Powell never convinces as a sadistic mastermind and feels like a guy play-acting at sociopathy. That is a damning observation, and it is accurate.
The eat-the-rich satire elements feel thin and uncommitted. Ford’s previous film, Emily the Criminal, was a small-scale caper that landed its critique of grind culture with precision and genuine anger. How to Make a Killing gestures at similar class commentary but never commits to it. The self-serious twists in the third act make things worse, piling on plot complications that the film’s tonal lightness cannot support. What should feel like a tightening noose instead feels like a screenplay trying to justify its own length.
How Does It Compare to Knives Out and Kind Hearts and Coronets?
The comparisons write themselves. Kind Hearts and Coronets, the classic British black comedy on which this premise is clearly modelled, worked because its protagonist’s detachment was genuinely unsettling — the comedy came from moral vacancy, not charm. Knives Out, the more obvious modern touchstone, balanced its comedic murder timing with genuine plot momentum and a mystery that kept audiences invested. How to Make a Killing has neither the icy wit of the former nor the propulsive plotting of the latter. It sits uncomfortably between them, wanting the laughs without the darkness and the thrills without the tension.
Powell’s star power is real and his charm is not in question — his rom-com work in films like Set It Up proved he can carry a film on personality alone. But a serial killer thriller requires something colder underneath the surface, and Ford never pushes his lead to find it.
Is How to Make a Killing worth watching?
It depends on your tolerance for a film that is entertaining in stretches but never fully delivers on its premise. If you are a Powell fan or enjoy dark comedy thrillers with a light touch, there is enough here to justify a single watch. If you are expecting A24’s next sharp genre statement, adjust your expectations significantly.
How does How to Make a Killing compare to Emily the Criminal?
John Patton Ford’s debut, Emily the Criminal, was tighter, angrier, and more focused in its class critique. How to Make a Killing is a bigger production with a more famous cast, but it lacks the disciplined specificity that made Emily the Criminal land. Sophomore films are often where directors overreach, and this one is a case study in that phenomenon.
Who is the best performer in How to Make a Killing?
Margaret Qualley is the film’s most valuable player. She takes a role that could have been purely functional and turns it into something genuinely surprising. Powell handles the narration well, but Qualley is the one who makes you wish the film around her were better.
How to Make a Killing is not unwatchable — it is something almost worse for a film with this much going for it: it is forgettable. A24 has built its reputation on genre films that leave a mark, and this one fades before the credits finish rolling. Ford has the talent; the evidence is right there in his debut. But a promising premise, a charismatic lead, and a stacked supporting cast are not enough when the script cannot commit to its own darkness.
Edited by the All Things Geek team.
Source: TechRadar
