Glad to see John Patton Ford continue a lot of the success of Emily the Criminal with How to Make a Killing, and equally glad to see Glen Powell land a leading role that at least somewhat fits his talents as charming and conniving, as opposed to the more empathetic, everyman or out-and-out heroic protagonist that hasn’t exactly suited his strengths over the last few years (see: The Running Man, Hit Man) since his meteoric rise post-Top Gun: Maverick (although the real ones caught on with Everybody Wants Some!!). The guy has movie star gravity to spare, but the roles haven’t always known what to do with it.
Here, Ford gives Powell a character worth sinking his teeth into. Becket Redfellow is the incredibly named last in a long line of inheritors of a family fortune, disowned by birth after his mother was exiled from the obscenely wealthy Redfellow family for keeping a teenage pregnancy. The only way Becket will ever see a penny of that fortune is if each of the remaining family members were to perish coincidentally, or if he’s able to convincingly kill them off, one by one, without getting caught.
The premise is campy by design, and the film understands just how fishy it sounds when members of the same wealthy family start dropping in unusual circumstances. One is by chance. Two is a coincidence. Three is a pattern. Ford crosscuts between present-day Becket, sitting on death row conversing with a priest in his final days, and the past events that got him there. We’re to assume from the beginning that he’s been caught and prosecuted, a setup that doesn’t quite take all the air out of the balloon but does chip away at the mystery of whether he’ll get away with the whole thing.
The cast surrounding Powell is a solid one, even if the film doesn’t always know what to do with all of it. Topher Grace makes the most memorable appearance as Pastor Steven, a televangelist showman conveyed as a grifter from his very first moment on screen, something like a Righteous Gemstones character with less self-proclaimed wholesomeness. Jessica Henwick is genuinely good as Ruth, the girlfriend of one of Becket’s earliest victims, who begins dating Becket in the aftermath without knowing he’s the one responsible. Both Grace and Henwick are among the best aspects of the film outside of Powell, adding to an array of eclectic characters we meet as Becket fumbles through his plan.
Ed Harris plays Whitelaw, the sort-of final boss of the Redfellow family, the last obstacle standing between Becket and the fortune. And Harris is, frankly, such an obvious casting choice that it felt a touch on the nose to a point of being lazy. Heavy, heavy whiffs of A History of Violence or Love Lies Bleeding in this one, which isn’t entirely a bad thing, but it’s the kind of casting that does 90% of the work before he’s even said a word on screen.
Margaret Qualley‘s Julia is the film’s most confusing element, and was far oversold in the marketing in terms of just how present she’d actually be. She plays Becket’s childhood friend, who disappears from his life for years before coincidentally reentering just as his killing spree begins, and her character floats in and out in long stretches throughout the runtime. You almost forget she’s in the movie entirely for significant periods of time. She functions more as a plot engine than a fully realized character whose backstory and motivations are built through the first two acts to produce memorable payoffs in the third. Qualley has strong screen presence in the role, but the writing does her no favors.
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How to Make a Killing represents a grander scale for John Patton Ford, who proves he can keep things moving and remain grounded at the same time. A premise this campy and this difficult to maintain a serious tone could have unraveled quickly in less capable hands, but he gets the job done. Given the collective talent assembled here, it’s maybe a slight disappointment that the film doesn’t cohere into something more satisfying. But Powell is captivating in a way he hasn’t been allowed to be in a while, and for that reason alone the movie stays entertaining enough to recommend with a few asterisks attached.
Score: 6/10
How to Make a Killing (2026)
- Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Ed Harris
- Director: John Patton Ford
- Genre: Comedy, Thriller
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: February 20, 2026
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