How to Make a Killing (2026) Film Review

Glen Powell effortlessly charms in How to Make a Killing, a brisk but predictable inheritance eat the rich comedy thriller.

Directed and written by John Patton Ford and loosely based on Roy Horniman’s novel “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal”, How to Make a Killing follows Becket (Glen Powell, of Hit Man), who was disowned before he even had a chance to speak. His mother, once first in line to inherit the Redfellow fortune, is cut off after becoming pregnant at the age of 18. His father dies during childbirth. From that moment on, Becket grows up with the knowledge that a vast inheritance is meant to be his… or at least that’s what his mother tells him, and it becomes less of a hope and more of a birthright in his mind.

Powell was a smart choice for this role. He has the kind of easy charisma that makes you want to follow him even when you know you shouldn’t. Becket isn’t written as a tortured antihero, as he is a tad opportunistic and deeply self-justifying. Powell leans into that without tipping into parody: he understands that the character’s charm is what makes the premise work. If Becket were simply cold, the film would collapse. Instead, Powell makes him breezy enough for the early killings to feel almost playful.

The structure moves briskly. After his mother’s death from cancer and a stint in an orphanage, Becket drifts into adulthood working retail at a high-end clothing store. A chance encounter with his childhood friend Julia Steinway (Margaret Qualley, of Honey Don’t!) reopens old wounds. She’s now engaged and worlds away from him socially. In a moment that’s framed as a joke but lands with pointed clarity, she tells him to “call me when you’ve killed them all.” The film treats this as the spark; soon after, Becket begins methodically eliminating the relatives standing between him and the family fortune.

There are flashes of ingenuity in the murder set pieces: an early “boating accident” in particular, involving an anchor and a rope wrapped around a leg, has morbid creativity. Ford clearly enjoys staging these moments with a wink, but once you recognize the pattern, there’s little surprise left. The film telegraphs its moves well in advance and for a story about calculated ambition, it plays out in a remarkably straightforward way.

Zach Woods provides the strongest supporting turn as Noah, Becket’s self-serious “artist” cousin. Woods has impeccable line delivery, and he wrings genuine laughs out of material that might have felt thin in other hands. His scenes crackle because he fully commits to Noah’s clueless intellectualism, and It helps that his dynamic with Powell feels playful and natural. 

Not everyone fares as well. Margaret Qualley, who is usually a reliable candidate, feels oddly misplaced here. Julia is not really given a lot to do as a character, and it’s apparent Qualley never quite settles into the role; the performance feels restrained in a film that otherwise operates at full tilt.

The larger issue is that the film seems to be too fond of Becket. It positions him as the underdog reclaiming what was stolen from him, but it rarely interrogates the ugliness of his entitlement. The narration nudges the audience toward complicity: you’re meant to enjoy the ride, yet that indulgence undercuts the satire. If this is supposed to be a darkly comic critique of inherited wealth and moral decay, it doesn’t dig deep enough to actually say anything. It skims the surface, content with cleverness over actual substance.

For most of its runtime, the pacing keeps things afloat. Scenes move quickly and the kills are fun and clever for the most part. There’s this sense of fun in watching Becket maneuver through increasingly absurd circumstances. But then the third act arrives and the whole thing falters. 

That crash landing is frustrating because there’s a sharper film buried inside the movie, based on the fun premise alone. Once again, Glen Powell proves  that he can anchor a movie with sheer magnetism.There are stretches where the tone hits just right: it’s funny, slightly vicious, and it moves. But How to Make a Killing ultimately isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. The satire lacks any sort of bite and the emotional arc of it all never deepens beyond surface-level ambition. It’s an entertaining ride for a while, and even an amusing one, but it never fully earns the wicked grin it keeps flashing.

How to Make a Killing will be released in US theatres on February 20, 2026 and in UK & Irish cinemas on March 13.