It often feels as though the days of the "movie star" have passed us by. Not too long ago, having a star like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise leading a movie was enough to almost guarantee box office success. Those times seem to be gone, but if anyone feels like a star of old nowadays, I think it has to be Glen Powell. From his breakout supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick to his recent run of blockbusters, Powell feels as close to a Tom Cruise as anyone else in the business, and hopefully his latest continues his trend of success.
How to Make a Killing is loosely inspired by the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, and follows Powell as Beckett, the youngest descendant of an obscenely wealthy family. Upon his mother becoming pregnant she is disowned by the family, raising Beckett with little money but the promise of future wealth. When an old friend and childhood crush, Julia (Margaret Qualley), comes back into his life, Beckett sets out to reclaim his inheritance by taking out everyone in line ahead of him.
Based on the trailers I was expecting this to be exactly the kind of dark comedy I tend to love, but I was pleasantly surprised upon seeing the film that it has some real noir sensibilities. It's still a very fun movie, but it has some pretty classic elements that I'm sure it pulls from the 1949 source material. The film opens at what is essentially its ending, then allowing the events to play out as Beckett recounts them, offering a similar narrative structure to classic noir films like Double Indemnity. Perhaps most potently delivering that noir vibe though is Margaret Qualley. At first I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about her role, but as the film goes on she leans into the devious femme fatale role brilliantly. On paper her character is one that should be easy to hate, but Qualley has that special something that lures both you as a viewer and Beckett as a character despite her misgivings.
The perfect antithesis of Qualley's femme fatale is Jessica Henwick as Ruth. Ruth is the other romantic interest for Beckett and I genuinely loved her performance. She plays the girlfriend of one of Beckett's cousin, only to wind up romantically involved with Beckett, and all throughout she gives the film its one bit of humanity, someone uninterested in the wealth but rather with Beckett himself. It certainly helps the film that Henwick and Powell have terrific chemistry, making you root for things to work out for them even as Beckett becomes more and more morally grey. Aside from those three there aren't many big performances, but Bill Camp is a standout as Beckett's uncle and Topher Grace has one hilarious scene.
Tonally I think the noir-esque structure aids the film quite a bit. It becomes more than just watching a guy kill off his relatives and allows the story to critique the ways in which the ultra-rich can seemingly get away with anything. The mix of the fun and more serious tones also help make Beckett a really interesting character to follow despite having a pretty clear idea early on of where his story will go. Visually the film delivers some very clean cinematography which fits the high class characters it follows, while the musical score gives a fun old school vibe to everything.
As far as flaws, I don't entirely know how I feel about the film's ending, but that does little to impact how much I enjoyed its entire runtime. This is a fun but thrilling time that I can see pretty much anyone enjoying. 4/5
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