{"id":14053,"date":"2026-02-21T16:47:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14053"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:33:58","slug":"how-to-make-a-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/02\/21\/how-to-make-a-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make a Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"How to Make a Killing<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Comedy-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some violence\/bloody images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Patton Ford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Patton Ford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Emile Mosseri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Todd Banhazi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 20, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Ed Harris, Bianca Amato, Raff Law, Sean Cameron Michael, James Frecheville, Stevel Marc.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn\u2019t realize going into How to Make a Killing<\/strong> that it was a remake of the 1949 British comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. That\u2019s one I still haven\u2019t seen, but maybe that\u2019s a good thing in this case. I have a feeling the new version would pale in comparison. It\u2019s true more often than not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal), How to Make a Killing<\/strong> stars Glen Powell (The Running Man) as Becket Redfellow, a man brought up to believe he\u2019s entitled to the life of privilege denied to him after his mother was disowned by her obscenely wealthy family. He\u2019s eighth in line to inherit a $28 billion fortune and intends to get his hands on it by murdering his way to the top of the list. Achieving this goal proves to be murder.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The seed of Becket\u2019s diabolical scheme is planted by a chance encounter with his childhood friend Julia (Qualley, Drive-Away Dolls) at the suit store where he works. He always had a thing for her so he\u2019s understandably disappointed when she shows him the engagement ring on her finger. That\u2019s when he comes up with the idea to reconnect with his estranged family in a most macabre way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You know what they say about best laid plans. They tend to go awry. Becket didn\u2019t count on falling in love with Ruth (Henwick, Cuckoo), the girlfriend of one of the cousins he kills. They have an easy rapport and soon they\u2019re moving in together. This, of course, doesn\u2019t set well with Julia who has a plan of her own. He also comes to admire his uncle (Camp, Sound of Freedom) who gives him a job at his financial firm. Predictably, he\u2019s one of the names on Becket\u2019s hit list. Also, a couple of FBI agents show up and start sniffing around.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although I was entertained by How to Make a Killing<\/strong>, it feels somewhat off and not in the right way. It\u2019s strangely light for a dark comedy. Here we have a protagonist who kills people, relatives no less, for money, a lot of money. The humor should have been sharp and savage. Ford should have mercilessly skewered the 1% and the mentality that comes with great unearned wealth. Becket\u2019s victims should have been terrible people doing terrible things. Ford goes too easy on them. Most of them aren\u2019t that bad; they\u2019re just idle and aimless. Only two of the targets deserve what Becket has in mind for them, a con man cousin (Grace, That 70s Show) and the family patriarch (Harris, The Truman Show), a truly vile person.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It also feels like Ford didn\u2019t think the whole story through. For instance, does anybody else find it odd that the Redfellows so readily accepted Becket as their cousin? Not one of them demands he take a DNA test. Is it because he has a honest face? In a movie like the one How to Make a Killing<\/strong> wants to be, nobody is honest. It doesn\u2019t follow its own rules.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Powell underplays it as Becket. You never get the sense he\u2019s ruthless or capable of murder. He\u2019s just too darn likable. He stays that way the whole time. You never see any sort of transformation. It could be argued that it\u2019s the right way for him to play his character, but I would counter that characters in a dark comedy need to have a nasty side. Even William H. Macy\u2019s character in Fargo had a dark side hidden beneath his overt ineptitude as a criminal. It\u2019s not a bad performance per se, I just wanted to see Powell get more down and dirty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Qualley is one of my favorite young actresses. She has a way of delivering lines that\u2019s uniquely hers. She\u2019s very dry. It serves her well here playing a femme fatale of sorts. I suppose it wouldn\u2019t be much of a spoiler to tell you that Julia is a schemer. She\u2019s playing Becket. You can see it in the careful but controlled way she carries herself through her scenes. Henwick is okay as the love interest and one of the film\u2019s only decent characters. Harris is at his rotten best as a wealthy creep who not only refuses to go down without fighting, he also makes sure he has every unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0How to Make a Killing<\/strong> has its share of flaws, but it\u2019s not a bad movie. I rather enjoyed it myself. At the same time, I found myself wishing it went at its target with sharper knives. It\u2019s not as edgy as it should be in this day and age when billionaires have all the advantages. Isn\u2019t it time somebody came at them with weaponized wit? If only Ford had fully taken off the gloves.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Make a Killing (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Comedy-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some violence\/bloody images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Patton Ford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Patton Ford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Emile Mosseri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Todd Banhazi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 20, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Ed Harris, Bianca Amato, Raff Law, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/How-to-Make-a-Killing-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14053"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14091,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14053\/revisions\/14091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}