Movie Review: A24’s HOW TO MAKE A KILLING is about class and entitlement

“Get the life you deserve” is what young Becket’s mother, Mary, tells him on her deathbed. It’s the one line that is his clear driving force and what I came away with as the theme of the film, connecting to our society regarding class, capitalism, and what people think they are owed. In How To Make A Killing, Glen Powell plays adult Becket Redfellow, a working-class guy from New Jersey, but his mother was part of an immensely wealthy upstate New York family. She was disowned when pregnant with him, but was forced to live a meager life. After running into his childhood love, Julia, played by Margaret Qualley, who was from that wealthy circle, it spurs him to look into his family and start bumping them off. Even though he’s on the outs, if they all end up dead, he inherits the family fortune.

The film is mostly told through Beckett telling the story of his life to a priest, and it’s a good angle because it also lets you question just how much of this story is the truth or what Becket wants you to think of his story. John Patton Ford wrote and directed this film that layers its fun premise with critical and at times cynical views of class and capitalism in the US. You want to like Becket, and you root for Becket – he’s justified in his feelings on what was taken from him. Powell is great here, just as he was with Linklater’s Hit Man. Powell excels at playing these men who have alter egos or hidden sides. Having a character that, at times, has to play characters to achieve their goals is such an entertaining thing to see on screen. He’s so good at it that I’m surprised he hasn’t been cast as a Superhero character yet.

Each one of the Redfellow clan is a fun trope-filled character that skewers the uber-rich kids who seem to just do anything and poorly with all the money and access they have. Zach Woods‘ Noah Redfellow is one of the most important of these characters. A fine artist photographer who uses every single buzzword you’ve ever heard from a fine artist is a complete aloof character that can’t even remember his cousin’s name. Still, it’s his girlfriend, Ruth, played by Jessica Henwick, that completely changes the film with her presence. She’s one of the few completely good characters in the film and offers a completely different viewpoint and counter to the ideology Becket is chasing – what’s wrong with just wanting a nice life?

I couldn’t separate watching this film from how there’s a large segment of society that feels they are owed something. That there are people who have the life that they feel they should have. Now, in this, it’s a person who should be rich attacking the rich, but in real life, it’s very much working-class people thinking that other working-class people or even poor people have stopped them from having the life that was promised to them. That the rich are complicit in exploiting these people, and not that the rich are inherently exploiting them too. These folks will do whatever to get what they want. The film also works with current tech and financial-based wealth classes, too. There is never enough wealth. If you ask them for a hard number, they can’t give you one other than more, and this question happens in the film when Becket meets Ruth, and it keeps coming up after that.

I think How To Make A Killing is a stronger, smarter, and better-made film than the other Glen Powell class movie, The Running Man remake, as that focused so much on spectacle that it missed something that the earlier adaptation rang a bit truer on class and exploitation. In this film, with Powell as the lead, you get more of a nuanced look into the mentality of the desire to achieve wealth at all costs, and what some are willing to do to get what they feel is owed. Why do they feel owed, and when they have a decent life, why isn’t it enough? These concepts are what I was thinking about as I laughed at the setup of the kills and his costumes to set up these elaborate murders. The movie knows how to be fun when it wants to be while slipping its message throughout it.

Margaret Qualley has a ball playing the femme fatale in this, and she’s enjoyable to watch as she chews up the scenery every time she appears. Topher Grace also has a ton of fun with his character, Pastor Steven J. Redfellow, for the short time he’s on screen with Powell. He’s so over the top in this, along with his makeup, that it was hard to make out that it was him. Bill Camp brings a nice grounded performance as Warren Redfellow, Becket’s uncle and the only member of the family besides the patriarch who acknowledges Becket’s mother, Mary, and is regretful of what happened and his inaction. While being a rich guy and just helping Becket is a clear sign of nepotism, watching it makes you wonder more and more just why Becket is so driven in his goal when he now has so much and potential for more.

Finally, Ed Harris plays Whitelaw Redfellow, Mary’s father and Becket’s grandfather, and it’s always so good to see Harris in such a good, ominous role. His gravely voice and piercing eyes just always work; even in such a small role, his shadow towers over the whole story. How To Make A Killing is a very good black comedy crime movie that feels pretty different than what you’d expect from an A24 release. It takes a pretty standard genre film and adds the right amount of thematic ideas that make it fresh, along with its very strong cast. The ending of the film sealed it for me and goes in a way that might be expected or not, but ties it all together very well. How To Make A Killing was very much worth seeing.