What happens when your family turn their backs against you? Well, Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) asks just that when he realises that he can reclaim his inheritance after his wealthy family disowns him. In an attempt to claim his rightful stake in the family’s estate, Becket will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And what he believes he deserves…
Becket’s motivation is essentially avenging his mother’s death. At 18-years-old, Mary Redfellow (Nell Williams) is kicked out of the household and forced to ‘make a living’ as a single-mother. Moving to New Jersey, she works hard for her and Becket. But her last wish is for Becket to become more satisfied with life. And everything he does from then on is for himself and his mother’s legacy.
John Patton Ford, perhaps best known for Emily the Criminal (2022), writes and directs this black comedy thriller that takes inspiration from the British comedy-thriller, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). With their similar themes and tones – there’s a slight resemblance to a concoction of American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman’s insatiable appetite for killing and The Housemaid’s ‘get revenge on the rich’ premise.
How to Make a Killing plays on the lives of the rich. Primarily, it identifies the Redfellows’ ‘rich’ lifestyles and habits. From partying to drinking, and countless vacations to doing a whole lot of nothingness – Becket acts as our rescue. The title itself is a clever twist on the overused phrase, ‘how to make a living.’ Essentially Becket wants to earn his rights to the family finances after making those killings.
Becket Meets His Match
Glen Powell excels at playing an emotionally stagnant suits salesman who feels rather stuck in his dead-end low-paying job. That is until an idea sticks in his mind. And along with his mother’s last words – he decides to enact change for the better of his life.
But Becket truly meets his match when he comes up against his childhood sweetheart crush, Julia Steinway (Margaret Qualley). Unfortunately for Becket, she is equally as good at playing manipulative mind games. Margaret Qualley plays her role exceptionally here. She’s like an evil Bond-girl. Despite her outfits being divine, her character has much to answer for and constantly keeps Becket on-edge. Julia becomes a master-manipulator with money, compared to Becket’s lower-paid occupations. We witness how he builds his way up from living on barely anything to trying to be ‘one of the finance guys.’
However, as much as each killing is inventive as the next, some deaths are given more screen time. And other killings are simply skipped over too quickly. Becket’s voice-over narration tells the whole story. At times this can be quite grating as you’re ready for the scenes to play out more than Becket telling you what happens. It certainly works well at the beginning and end of the story. But the fact it runs throughout is a bold choice.
Although, the voiceover narration brings us closer to Becket’s perspective, we question if he is actually an anti-hero. At first, he tries to ‘make a living’ but when that doesn’t work out how he hoped, he turns to ‘making a killing.’ But we watch him make his own downfall as he transitions from a protagonist that ‘does good’ to an anti-hero who lets the pursuit of money drain his soul.
Playing with Time
How to Make a Killing cleverly plays with time to keep its audience hooked. Plot twists and reversals, sharp editing, and voiceover narration are just some of the techniques used throughout to effectively tell Becket’s story. Among the rich family members are care-free party-boy Taylor (Raff Law), spoilt artist Noah (Zach Woods), businessman Warren (Bill Camp), arrogant Pastor Steven (Topher Grace), and the powerfully and frighteningly fierce, Whitelaw (Ed Harris).
But the most interesting aspect of this story falls at the push-and-pull dynamic between Becket and Julia. They are both the driving force in each other’s lives. Their back-and-forth chemistry serves to light up the screen. How to Make a Killing speaks on nepotism, toxic relationships, and financial greed. Becket working his way up the inheritance ladder constantly makes us question if he is a protagonist that we want to see succeed.
Sometimes he’s too heartless but when everyone around him acts just as toxic, he adapts and becomes just like the rich. Can we really support Becket after everything he’s done? Yet there’s no one else to side with, so writer and director John Patton Ford has his audience exactly where he wants them.
With each killing Becket becomes more powerful yet more immoral at the same time. He allows himself to find true love with good-girl, Ruth (Jessica Henwick). But we realise that real life gets in the way of a fairy-tale ending. Even though this could be considered a far-fetched Hollywood story, expect a more melancholic resolution than a happy ending.
Rating: 3 ½ stars
How to Make a Killing (2026) is released in UK cinemas on 13th March 2026. You can read more reviews like this, including The Good Boy (2025) here.
