How to Make a Killing Leaves Fortune on the Table

How to Make a Killing

★ ★ ½

How to Make a Killing is a loose remake of the 1947 British dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Both films are adapted from the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman. In each version, a man becomes a killer in order to climb the family tree and claim the wealth waiting at the top. In this version, the story doesn’t live up to the high-stakes drama promised by its premise.

Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris) is the head of the Redfellow family. The Redfellows are a family of generational wealth. When young adult Nell (Nell Williams), Whitelaw’s daughter, disgraces the family by becoming pregnant, she’s given a choice: get rid of the baby or keep it and be cut off from the family and its fortune. She gives birth to a son named Beckett. His father dies quickly thereafter, leaving Mary to raise him alone and struggle to make ends meet. Mary falls ill, and before she dies, tells Beckett about the family fortune. She makes him promise to earn the life he deserves.

Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow
© 2026 A24

Now an adult, Beckett (Glen Powell) works in an upscale men’s clothing store. Julia (Margaret Qualley), a childhood friend who’s now an all-grown-up bombshell, visits the store and flirts with him. They talk about his family and how far down the line he is for an inheritance. He’s more likely to win the Powerball. She suggests he bump off the family members ahead of him before she leaves the store, telling him to look her up when he’s rich.

It probably goes without saying that the Redfellows are generally terrible people. If they weren’t, we’d have a hard time sympathizing with Beckett as he takes action to systematically eliminate the family that abandoned his mother, especially as she fell ill.

Bill Camp as Warren Redfellow
© 2026 A24

This is supposed to be a dark comedy of sorts, as Beckett starts killing off his kin, starting with the low-hanging fruit on the tree and working his way up. It’s supposed to be darkly quirky. It’s entertaining when it hits that mark, which isn’t often enough.

But the film lacks any serious depth, and it tries too hard to set up a surprise twist at the end. Even if we don’t see the setup coming, the surprise isn’t very intriguing.

The chemistry and elements are all there. Powell brings his natural charisma to the role, and his family has enough quirks to make the plot interesting. The concept is ripe with potential—a man has to kill his family to get his inheritance. Despite this, the script rarely manages to pull these elements together in a meaningful way.

Margaret Qualley as Julia
© 2026 A24

Qualley’s Julia is astoundingly misused as the bad-girl love interest. It seems recent films have asked her to play her roles like she’s in a film noir detective movie, but it’s certainly out of place here. From the start, Julia is one of the most uninteresting characters in the film. And this is a problem, since she’s the extra push Beckett needs to take action. The things we do for love, played out like a Dr Pepper that’s gone flat.

While the film is entertaining at times, the story and characters are given shallow treatment when the concept deserves greater depth. It’s not unsatisfying, but the execution becomes more of a lesson in how to kill a couple of hours at the movies. The unpopped kernels in the popcorn bag were more dangerous.