How to Make a Killing: Bloodlines and bottom lines

March 2, 2026 · Watch the official trailer

Obsession with money and power has long served as a dramatic through line for filmmakers seeking cinematic conflict and spectacle.

Especially in a post–Occupy Wall Street world, the notion of “eating the rich” as a means of rectifying perceived wrongs has become even more prevalent.

Writer-director John Patton Ford’s latest darkly comic drama, “How To Make A Killing,” takes that idea and cranks it up to an even more caustic extreme, a warped vision of justice built on balancing the scales by any means necessary.

Ford’s sharply misanthropic film stars Glen Powell as the youngest and most marginalized heir to a billion-dollar family fortune, who sets out to right the perceived wrongs inflicted upon his mother by murdering his relatives and inching ever closer to his inheritance.

Powell is arresting, charming, and somehow disarmingly humble as Beckett, a man propelled by his mother’s dying words not to quit until he achieves the life he believes he deserves. The native Texan leads with an unassuming warmth that belies the technical precision in Beckett’s thinking and makes it almost unsettlingly easy to see how and why Beckett can quite literally get away with murder.

Neither the actor nor Ford attempt to justify the systemic elimination of a prominent family’ one by one. Instead, the film examines the moment when grievance curdles into entitlement and when “enough” becomes a dangerously loose concept.

It is within those moral quandaries that Powell is strongest, reflecting Beckett’s unease with genuine warmth and love, while simultaneously convincing both himself and the audience that the violence must continue.

“How To Make A Killing” presents Powell with a unique challenge as he must generate instant rapport with a wide ensemble cast in fleeting interactions, bouncing between social circles and power structures while keeping Beckett’s emotional core intact.

There is a sharp nuance to the humor Powell and Ford uncover in the film’s quieter moments, and Powell excels at finding levity without inflating the joke beyond its scale.

Margaret Qualley is wonderful in a flirtatious, intentionally underwritten role as Beckett’s first romantic interest, walking a delicate line between friend and potential foe. The pair’s occasionally uneven chemistry feels less like imbalance and more like a deliberate reflection of Ford’s tonal aims. Meanwhile, a deep supporting cast – including Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, and Ed Harris – expands the world of the film’ and helps to crystalize Beckett’s motivations.

Ford also makes the interesting choice to frame “How To Make A Killing” through Beckett’s narration – a rare, character-driven device that allows audiences into his thinking as events unfold. The screenplay does the tricky job of subverting audience expectations early to pull off this effect and structurally it carries shades of “The Usual Suspects,” not because of a twist, but because of how much control the storyteller holds over perspective.

The narration succeeds largely because Powell’s natural charm makes it easier to accept brief departures as an way into Becket’s thoughts rather than feeling intrusive. Powell’s warmth tempers the character’s logic, making his reasoning understandable even when it edges toward the indefensible.

Ford has openly discussed how “How To Make A Killing” underwent significant structural changes during a year-long editing process, and attentive audiences may feel those seams while viewing. The film occasionally carries the feeling of ideas being reassembled rather than unfolding organically and while Powell’s strong narration helps smooth some of those transitions, the pacing still feels uneven tonally, especially once the film enters its final act.

“How To Make A Killing” ultimately reveals itself to be a different film than it first appears. What begins with the promise of a sharp, eat-the-rich thriller gradually shifts into something more introspective and morally tangled, which may prove to be somewhat jarring for audiences expecting a more straightforward dark comedy.

Fans of Powell’s filmography intrigued by the premise or the engaging trailer should still head to theaters to catch this uniquely twisted dark comedy on the big screen.