How To Make a Killing
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Everyone loves playing a bad guy and Glen Powell is clearly having a good time in HOW TO MAKE A KILLING.
I almost caught myself wondering if he's really a villain, and that's a testament to Powell's charm, since he spends the entire movie killing anyone in the family tree between him and a $28 million inheritance.
Well structured by Writer/Director John Patton Ford, the film has some big laughs, plenty of suspense and more than a few surprises up it's well tailored cuffs.
Powell stars as Becket Redfellow, the bastard son of the daughter of Whitelaw Redfellow, one of those Hamptons Mega-Mansion rich dudes that lives in the film's shadows but tells his daughter if she has the baby, she's out of the mansion.
Becket narrates the family history and we see Becket as a young boy, showing flashes of the charm that he OWNS once he grows to be Powell (Top Gun:Maverick, The Running Man).
Becket has a crush as a young boy on neighbor Julia, who grows up to become the stunning Margaret Qualley (The Substance). Julia pops into the tailor shop that grown up Becket works in, throwing out a casual joke about how many people Becket would need to knock off to inherit the entire $28 billion Redfellow fortune.
Well, one beautiful old flame's joke is another man's plan and Becket begins to hunt the family members with many different methods. He's nothing if not versatile.
They are a hilarious and odd bunch, luckily for us, the viewer.
His first target is Taylor Redfellow (Raff Law from "Masters of the Air") a hard partying Wall Street dude whose idea of a Friday is hovering in a helicopter over his beach side estate, showering his partygoers with money and the leaping to the pool below. Becket starts out as a wannabe Dexter, nervous, hesitant and more than a little lucky.
It turns out he's pretty great at taking people out.
Zach Woods (Veep, Silicon Valley) is hilarious as Noah Redfellow, a wannabe edgy artist nerd with a penchant for taking a lot of photos and an arrogant attitude. Woods made me laugh every moment he was on screen.
Veteran character actor Bill Camp (The Outsider) is excellent as Warren Redfellow, Becket's Uncle and the only one in the family who seems to feel bad that Becket and his Mom were dropped from the family gatherings so many years before.
The opportunity he provides gives Becket a path back into the Redfellows.
Topher Grace seems a bit miscast as a famous preacher/evangelist/conman, Steven Redfellow, he's there and gone pretty quickly.
Jessica Henwick (Glass Onion) is terrific as Ruth, Becket's current girlfriend who loves Becket just the way he is. I loved how complicated the relationships of Julia/Becket/Ruth become in the final act.
Ed Harris (The Abyss, The Rock) is excellent as Redfellow patriarch Whitelaw. It's great to see him on the big screen again and he brings class to any role, especially one as pivotal as Whitelaw.
If you love dark humor as much as I do, you'll really enjoy this one. Powell is charismatic as hell and just like Michael C. Hall in "Dexter" you'll likely find yourself cheering for a relentless killer.
With a heavy essence of Lawrence Kasdan's brilliant "Body Heat", HOW TO MAKE A KILLING keeps you guessing all the way to a very entertaining B.
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