How To Make A Killing – The BRWC Review. By Oscar Aitchison.
Less “eat the rich” more dipping them in a condiment, this blunt and bland copy is paint by numbers cinema.
When the first trailer for John Patton Ford’s sophomore feature How to Make a Killing dropped there was a distinct feeling of déjà vu. Another eat the rich movie? Another Glenn Powell movie? Another mid March release A24 movie can only mean one thing. Patton Ford has attempted the kind of crowd pleasing romp made for the mainstream complete with satirical chops and notions on class and the mega rich. While his first film Emily the Criminal revelled in the protagonist’s surprise gift at credit card fraud his new film gives us a million characters ready for slaughter and doesn’t develop a single one.
Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) is the last in line for the Redfellow family inheritance of over $10 billion after his mother was disowned for getting pregnant with him at 18. He works as a lowly suit salesman and is accosted by his childhood “sweetheart” Julia (Margaret Qualley) who has married rich and pities him despite her lingering attraction. Sick of his circumstances he decides in unbeffiting style to slowly start killing his family members next in line for the fortune in order to gain his inheritance and escape mediocrity. A potentially interesting concept if we hadn’t just seen it in far superior films like No Other Choice or even bang average ones like Saltburn or The Menu – it’s stale fare.
We rarely get to know much about Beckett beyond his fish out of water nature compared to his exuberant and increasingly silly and broadly drawn family. There’s barely any time to get acquainted with the story before we’re thrust into his first kill. This is all spliced between an exhaustingly exposition laden voice over of Beckett recounting the whole story on death row to a priest. Powell is becoming a predictable presence, known for his “effortless charm” there is none of that here, he is bland just as he was in The Running Man and beyond his good looks and devilish smile there is nothing for the audience to grab hold of. Qualley’s Julia is equally as bad although she is given a thankless task, thrown in every once in a while to remind Beckett of his inadequacy and twirl her hair whilst chewing gum.
It’s hard to know what the film is trying to satirise because Beckett gets a job as an insurance broker at his nicer uncle Warren’s (Bill Camp) brokerage. Are we supposed to hate the rich, try to understand them or pick apart the intricacies of each level of wealth? The family is largely loudly played with brash stereotypes like Zach Woods’ Noah as an egotistical “artist” and Topher Grace as a megachurch Christian grifter who are then quickly and boringly discarded. Patton Ford could have made this a gleefully violent good time but the kills are weak and uninspired. There are a lot of poisoning drinks or sneaking into spas and poisoning other items, someone gets pulled into the water by an anchor on a yacht – all uncinematic and largely easy deaths. There’s an attempt to increase the heat on Beckett through a pair of FBI agents but they seem to come and go when the film needs to raise its stakes.
A love story is manufactured through Jessica Henwick’s Ruth, previously dating Beckett’s cousin Noah they both unconvincingly fall for each other. This is supposed to make Beckett’s murdering more of a moral and dangerous quandary, he has someone he cares about now. The relationship, however, is never developed beyond a few throwaway meals and cheesy “date speak” so often used in cinema. It is uncertain whether we are supposed to root for Beckett so does it even matter if he can’t juggle his newfound romance? He’s not a particularly good guy and he isn’t convincing enough as a killer getting increasingly better at the job.
The cherry on the cake is Ed Harris as Whitelaw, the patriarch of the family and Beckett’s grandfather. Used so sparingly he might as well have sent a hologram in to do his performance for him. To waste such a good actor is unforgivable and for the film to be the type of thriller it wants to be he could’ve been a looming, presence wise to and trying to stop Beckett or at least involved in some meaningful way.
VERDICT: 3.5/10
How to Make a Killing confirms the worst fears it traps itself in. A bland and severely undercooked thriller without the sharp or cutting commentary it so desperately tries to convey. With underdeveloped characters, uninterested actors and flimsy violence it lacks any of the bite or humour the better end of this “eat the rich” obsession has given us. Perhaps it’s best to let this fad die.
