{"id":432786,"date":"2026-02-18T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432786\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:14:09","slug":"how-to-make-a-killing-review-riffing-on-a-black-comedy-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432786\/","title":{"rendered":"‘How to Make a Killing’ review: Riffing on a black comedy classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d starring Glen Powell<\/a> as a working-class man who sets out to murderously reclaim his inheritance, has a clear inspiration: the great Ealing black comedy \u201cKind Hearts and Coronets.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In that sublimely wicked 1949 film, Alec Guinness played all eight of the relatives that Dennis Price\u2019s would-be heir tries to bump off, making the film among the most delightful showcases of Sir Alec\u2019s range. Powell, as it happens, has already played a shape-shifter in an assassination comedy, Richard Linklater\u2019s \u201cHit Man.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But the deft tonal balance of \u201cHit Man,\u201d let alone of \u201cKind Hearts and Coronets,\u201d is missing in \u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d a disappointingly flat almost-remake that has neither the biting farce nor the chilling darkness to match its black comedy ambitions.<\/p>\n

In the film, written and directed by John Patton Ford, Powell doesn\u2019t opt for Guinness\u2019 chameleonic path. He plays a version of the Price character: Becket Redfellow, an outcast from an uber-wealthy family. After becoming pregnant at 18, Becket\u2019s mother is exiled by her father, Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris). The most compelling thing about \u201cHow to Make a Killing\u201d may be that, after an early flashback with Whitelaw, we know Becket will eventually face off with the Redfellow patriarch. There are worse ways to keep an audience around than to tacitly promise more Ed Harris.<\/p>\n

Becket is, himself, the narrator of his tale. He\u2019s telling it to a priest from a jail cell, four hours before his execution. But Becket is not remorseful for his misdeeds nor particularly anxious about his impending sentence. Disappointed by his last-meal cheesecake, he smirks, \u201cKill me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Skye<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If \u201cHow to Make a Killing\u201d carried this tone \u2014 Powell\u2019s signature glibness, with an edge \u2014 the movie might have worked better. Instead, Becket is a curiously uninteresting protagonist whose descent into serial killing happens wanly.<\/p>\n

After losing his job as a clerk to make way for the shop owner\u2019s son, Becket resolves to track down the cousins that stand to inherit the vast family fortune. He\u2019s motivated by advice from his mother \u2014 not to rest until he\u2019s got \u201cthe right kind of life\u201d \u2014 and by a chance encounter with his childhood crush (Margaret Qualley) who jocularly tells him to call her when he\u2019s killed three or four.<\/p>\n

The subsequent encounters give a window into the ultra-rich. Topher Grace plays a cousin, Bill Camp an uncle and Raff Law, son of Jude, another cousin. \u201cHow to Make a Killing\u201d has a handful of Hollywood nepo babies (Qualley is the daughter of Andie MacDowell), but going further might have added a meta twist. <\/p>\n

The lone standout of a forgettable bunch is Noah Redfellow (played by the perpetually underused Zach Woods), a painter who touts himself as \u201cWhite Basquiat.\u201d But the cast member that most gives \u201cHow to Make a Killing\u201d a lift is Jessica Henwick, who stood out even in a peripheral role in \u201cGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.\u201d<\/a> She plays Becket\u2019s down-to-earth girlfriend, whose warm presence increasingly makes you doubt Becket\u2019s already faint motivation for murder.<\/p>\n

Ford previously wrote and directed the excellent 2022 thriller \u201cEmily the Criminal,\u201d with Aubrey Plaza. That film, about a debt-ridden Los Angeles gig worker drawn into a criminal underbelly, showed Ford has the ability to connect contemporary class themes with gritty genre narratives. The more polished \u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d though, never connects those dots. <\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t help that the last few months have already given us a sensational satire about killing to get ahead: Park Chan-wook\u2019s \u201cNo Other Choice,\u201d<\/a> starring Lee Byung-hun as a newly unemployed family man who aims to eliminate his competition for a new job. Unfortunately for \u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d it would have to bump off quite a few movies to move up the black-comedy ranks. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d an A24 release, opens in theaters Friday. It\u2019s rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language and some violence\/bloody images. Running time: 105 minutes. Two stars out of four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHow to Make a Killing,\u201d starring Glen Powell as a working-class man who sets out to murderously reclaim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[158224,19588,10052,35192,158221,2973,158219,125326,96,8356,35785,158225,158222,158220,11733,11054,2839,158223,19494,144782,146730,56,54,55,158218],"class_list":{"0":"post-432786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-alec-guinness","9":"tag-andie-macdowell","10":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","11":"tag-aubrey-plaza","12":"tag-bill-camp","13":"tag-comedy","14":"tag-dennis-price","15":"tag-ed-harris","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-film-reviews","18":"tag-glen-powell","19":"tag-jake-coyle","20":"tag-jessica-henwick","21":"tag-john-patton-ford","22":"tag-lee-byung-hun","23":"tag-margaret-qualley","24":"tag-movies","25":"tag-noah-redfellow","26":"tag-richard-linklater","27":"tag-send-to-apple-news","28":"tag-topher-grace","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-unitedkingdom","32":"tag-zach-woods"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}