How to Make a Killing
I found it entertaining and interesting to watch, nothing more. It did not blow my mind, nor did it seem like an especially sharp black comedy, but it does have a touch of nastiness, a welcome cast and a story twisted enough to follow with pleasure. It works better as an elegant pastime than as a great satire about greed.
The premise is amusing: Becket Redfellow, pushed aside by a billionaire family, discovers that he could still get closer to the family fortune if he removes the people ahead of him in the line of succession. Put like that, it sounds like a bomb of black humor, a criminal plan full of rotten rich people, absurd inheritances and murders with a smile. And for a while the film leans quite well on that idea.
Glen Powell carries much of the whole thing. He has that easy charisma, the kind of guy who can seem likeable even while doing horrible things, and that suits Becket. The character needs you to understand his resentment without fully buying his justification, because in the end he is still a social climber willing to rationalize whatever is necessary to get what he believes he is owed. Powell makes him watchable, although the film sometimes seems too comfortable with his charm.
Margaret Qualley, as we already said, once again moves in that territory of a character who looks ready to cause trouble. She has a great ability to seem fragile, strange, cold or dangerously charming depending on the scene. Here she works very well because you never fully know whether she is supporting Becket, using him, desiring him or waiting for the right moment to let him fall. And yes, once again that nasty edge suits her wonderfully.
Jessica Henwick, of course, adds a lot whenever she appears. She has a presence that wins me over immediately, and for me there is an added sentimental defeat: if he does not end up with her, he has already lost, even if the film takes other routes. Beyond the joke, her character brings a different kind of energy, cleaner and more attractive, and helps make Becket look even more foolish when he makes certain choices.
The supporting cast is also well used, with Ed Harris, Bill Camp, Zach Woods and Topher Grace bringing faces, oddities and small moments. The film understands that in a story like this the rich relatives do not need to be deeply complex people, but they do need to be recognizable enough for the elimination game to have rhythm. Some work better than others, but the ensemble has charm.
The problem is that the film does not always find its tone. At times it wants to be poisonous black comedy, at times crime thriller, at times satire of the rich and at times a moral tale about ambition. All of that could coexist, but here it does not always fit precisely. It lacks a little more malice, a little more venom. It seems to want to be cruel, but never quite dares to be truly cruel.
You can also feel that its criticism of wealth and greed stays a little on the surface. The family is horrible, money corrupts, inheritance turns people monstrous, privilege is absurd… fine, but the film does not go much further than that. It has acidity, but it does not bite as much as it could. It feels more like a well-presented dark joke than a truly lethal satire.
Even so, it watches well. The pace is reasonable, the staging is polished and there are enough twists and situations not to get bored. It did not seem to me the tedious comedy some have seen, but not a brilliant piece either. More like a decent film, with enjoyable moments and a constant feeling that it could have been faster, sharper and wilder.
I liked the ending because it has a fairly fine cruelty: they do not kill him, but they take everything away from him. And that is almost worse. Becket remains alive to swallow his defeat, without money, without position, without control and without the future he had imagined. That prolonged punishment fits the black-comedy tone very well. Killing him would have been too easy; leaving him defeated has more bite.
Besides, Qualley comes out stronger in that closing stretch. She does not need a big villain scene; it is enough to understand that she has read the game better. She survives the game, he does not. And that gives the ending a satisfaction the film needed. It is not a brilliant ending, but it is better thought out than other stretches and leaves a good taste.
In the end, for me it remains an entertaining, interesting and fairly average film in a good sense. It has actors, it has a juicy premise, it has Jessica Henwick, it has Margaret Qualley doing her thing and it has a final punishment with some nasty wit. But it lacks more teeth to become a great black comedy. It is enjoyable, easy to follow and then probably easy to forget. Correct, cynical at times and pleasant to watch without demanding a masterpiece.
The premise is amusing: Becket Redfellow, pushed aside by a billionaire family, discovers that he could still get closer to the family fortune if he removes the people ahead of him in the line of succession. Put like that, it sounds like a bomb of black humor, a criminal plan full of rotten rich people, absurd inheritances and murders with a smile. And for a while the film leans quite well on that idea.
Glen Powell carries much of the whole thing. He has that easy charisma, the kind of guy who can seem likeable even while doing horrible things, and that suits Becket. The character needs you to understand his resentment without fully buying his justification, because in the end he is still a social climber willing to rationalize whatever is necessary to get what he believes he is owed. Powell makes him watchable, although the film sometimes seems too comfortable with his charm.
Margaret Qualley, as we already said, once again moves in that territory of a character who looks ready to cause trouble. She has a great ability to seem fragile, strange, cold or dangerously charming depending on the scene. Here she works very well because you never fully know whether she is supporting Becket, using him, desiring him or waiting for the right moment to let him fall. And yes, once again that nasty edge suits her wonderfully.
Jessica Henwick, of course, adds a lot whenever she appears. She has a presence that wins me over immediately, and for me there is an added sentimental defeat: if he does not end up with her, he has already lost, even if the film takes other routes. Beyond the joke, her character brings a different kind of energy, cleaner and more attractive, and helps make Becket look even more foolish when he makes certain choices.
The supporting cast is also well used, with Ed Harris, Bill Camp, Zach Woods and Topher Grace bringing faces, oddities and small moments. The film understands that in a story like this the rich relatives do not need to be deeply complex people, but they do need to be recognizable enough for the elimination game to have rhythm. Some work better than others, but the ensemble has charm.
The problem is that the film does not always find its tone. At times it wants to be poisonous black comedy, at times crime thriller, at times satire of the rich and at times a moral tale about ambition. All of that could coexist, but here it does not always fit precisely. It lacks a little more malice, a little more venom. It seems to want to be cruel, but never quite dares to be truly cruel.
You can also feel that its criticism of wealth and greed stays a little on the surface. The family is horrible, money corrupts, inheritance turns people monstrous, privilege is absurd… fine, but the film does not go much further than that. It has acidity, but it does not bite as much as it could. It feels more like a well-presented dark joke than a truly lethal satire.
Even so, it watches well. The pace is reasonable, the staging is polished and there are enough twists and situations not to get bored. It did not seem to me the tedious comedy some have seen, but not a brilliant piece either. More like a decent film, with enjoyable moments and a constant feeling that it could have been faster, sharper and wilder.
I liked the ending because it has a fairly fine cruelty: they do not kill him, but they take everything away from him. And that is almost worse. Becket remains alive to swallow his defeat, without money, without position, without control and without the future he had imagined. That prolonged punishment fits the black-comedy tone very well. Killing him would have been too easy; leaving him defeated has more bite.
Besides, Qualley comes out stronger in that closing stretch. She does not need a big villain scene; it is enough to understand that she has read the game better. She survives the game, he does not. And that gives the ending a satisfaction the film needed. It is not a brilliant ending, but it is better thought out than other stretches and leaves a good taste.
In the end, for me it remains an entertaining, interesting and fairly average film in a good sense. It has actors, it has a juicy premise, it has Jessica Henwick, it has Margaret Qualley doing her thing and it has a final punishment with some nasty wit. But it lacks more teeth to become a great black comedy. It is enjoyable, easy to follow and then probably easy to forget. Correct, cynical at times and pleasant to watch without demanding a masterpiece.
Mini Review: I found it entertaining and interesting to watch, nothing more. It did not blow my mind, nor did it seem like an especially sharp black comedy, but it does have a touch of nastiness, a welcome cast and a story twisted enough to follow with pleasure. It works better as an elegant pastime than as a great satire about greed. The premise is amusing: Becket Redfellow, pushed aside by a billionaire family, discovers that he could still get closer to...
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