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How to Make a Killing Review : Dark Comedy Meets a Morally Bleak Thriller
- Yadav B V
- 4 minutes ago
- 3 min read
One of the many movies I wished I had watched in the theatres, How to Make a Killing starring Glen Powell and Jessica Henwick is a really fun thriller ( dark ) comedy that has great storytelling and a unique ending.
How to Make a Killing by John Patton Ford keeps the pacing just right, the action sequences tasteful and the plot as interesting as possible. TMJ Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿/5
What is How to Make a Killing About?
One of the best all-around movies I've seen in a longgg time. Glen Powell plays the estranged heir to a fortune of billions who may or may not go about killing everyone else in line to the family fortune.
With time Powell infiltrates his rich family without any of them being the wiser until things start getting chaotic and he gets into a spot of trouble.
Throughout the movie Powell is welcomed into the family, threatened by some of them, ignored by most of them and he uses everything in his favor to ensure his place in the family inheritance.
What Makes This Movie Great
The plot sounds and IS simple; the execution though, is anything but. The climax of the movie has two major parts, with one carrying more weight than the other, which you will find as you watch it.
The movie sometimes feels like there will be a supernatural element, but it is actually human nature that is a lot creepier and more hopeless than a creature feature that is easy to paint as bad and single out in a story as the villain. These days it is more relevant than ever with people doing anything for money and to just gain that tiny sliver of an advantage.
Glen Powell's narration through the movie is handled tastefully and isn't done to death as in most movies. The cast is also a great factor in what makes this movie so fun and entertaining. The action sequences get great treatment without overdone set pieces, keeping things more realistic and minimal. There isn't a lot of violence in the movie, and especially no gratuitous violence, which would have taken a certain degree of restraint from the director considering this is a thriller movie.
The Cast
You see every single heir of the Redfellow family being directionless, entitled douchebags who think they are changing the world simply by them existing in it. Who knew that trust fund brats would be obnoxious, right?
Topher Grace looks almost unrecognizable as a douchebag in this movie and makes the most of the short screen time he has.
Zach Woods is known to take on unconventional roles, although they all have the weird, awkward guy thread in common with each other. In Silicon Valley, he plays Jared Dunn, the repressed IT employee; in the sitcom The Office, he plays Gabe Lewis, the skinny guy who is weird and lonely, and lacks any real power despite craving it.
Bianca Amato plays Cassandra, the Angelina Jolie wannabe, adopting kids from every nation she visits. The vibe of the movie isn't that you are following the life of a psychopath or that you are seeing the trajectory of evil; it is that human nature in the current day and age is heading nowhere good.
Margaret Qualley plays the unhinged childhood crush of Glen Powell as he navigates the perils of everyday life. You see why they chose her for this role considering her scintillating performance in The Substance.
Jessica Henwick plays the sweetheart love of Beckett's life as he goes about making his way to a life of a wealthy person. She has had a great run over the past few years as the love interest in Love and Monsters and other supporting characters such as the one in Knives Out: The Glass Onion. Glen Powell has bagged great roles such as in Hit Man ( 2023 ), Twisters ( 2024 ) and The Running Man ( 2025 ), where he proves his action chops time and again. Also these are movies where he's clearly the lead. The scene where Glen Powell faces off against a crazed billionaire is done particularly well, with the atmosphere leaning into horror. The ending of the movie is morally bleak even if it is completely probable. You see a grizzled Ed Harris as the time tested patriarch of a wealthy family which immediately screams "Behind Every Great Fortune There Is a Crime" While the endings in this movie seem finite, the way they have executed the script makes it feel completely unpredictable where the film will take you and what the ending will be like.
Should You Witness This Killing? Yes!
This is a great watch in terms of a thriller comedy with a not so great ending which is done extremely well with a good cast and great acting. Watch it preferably in theaters, if not it would make a great watch on OTT as well.
