How To Make A Killing (2026) – Review and Summary

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“How to Make a Killing” Film Details

• Director(s): John Patton Ford
• Writer(s): John Patton Ford
• Distributor: A24
• Runtime: Hour(s) and Minutes
• Public Release Date (In Theaters): February 20, 2026
• Genre(s): Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
• Content Rating: Rated R
• Primary Language: English
• Images © A24

Movie Summary

30-something-year-old Becket doesn’t have it bad, but it isn’t as good as it could be. His mom sacrificed a wealthy lifestyle to have him, and while thankful, unfortunately, he was made well aware throughout his upbringing of what was lost.

Enter Julia, a childhood crush, perhaps the greatest incentive Becket could have to pursue the life kept from him. She inspires him to go from working in a tailored suit shop to pursuing the life his mom pushed him to have. But whether or not she meant for him to be willing to kill for it is a whole other story.

Cast and Characters

Becket (Glen Powell – Adult; Grady Wilson – Child)

• Character Summary: Becket may not have grown up with the same privileges and wealth his mom did, but she did instill as much as her salary allowed. Be it learning piano, knowing how to dress nicely, archery, Becket was taught it all. Unfortunately, though, he was also taught about the life he would have had if things were different, and with being encouraged to never give up on the life he wants, he took that the wrong way.

Julia (Margaret Qualley – Adult; Maggie Toomey – Child)

• Character Summary: Julia has always been a bit boogie and looked down on Becket. But, with secretly having feelings for him for years, she was always torn between those who have money and status and this boy, later man, who still causes butterflies.

Mary (Nell Williams)

• Character Summary: Mary was Becket’s mother, a strong-willed woman who abandoned her father’s wealth to keep her son. Yet, even without having access to Whitelaw’s billion-dollar empire, she raised her son with class, whatever opportunities she could pay for, and never begged anyone in her family for help.

Ruth (Jessica Henwick)

• Character Summary: Ruth is a fashion designer turned teacher, with a focus on literature.

Whitelaw (Ed Harris)

• Character Summary: Whitelaw is the patriarch of the Redfellow family, whose callous decision towards Mary’s pregnancy sets everything in motion.

Warren (Bill Camp)

• Character Summary: While Whitelaw built his family’s wealth, it appears Warren is the one managing and trying to expand it through his work at the family’s brokerage firm.

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

Becket’s Healthy Relationships [83/100]

What may surprise you the most about How To Make A Killing is two of Becket’s relationships. The first being with his uncle, Warren, followed by Ruth. With Warren, what you get is the “What if?” What if Mary didn’t assume that because her father cut her off, her siblings would have nothing to do with her? Could some of the events in the film have happened without Becket being compelled to murder anyone?

Warren, despite how the rest of the family seems, appears to be nice, someone who loved Mary, and whose love for her instantly spills over onto Becket. I’d even say Warren may not be inviting Becket over to his house, or trying to be the dad Becket never had, but you see the potential there. It makes the idea of Becket needing to kill Warren for the inheritance something you can’t imagine him doing.

Then there is Ruth. Originally, she was dating one of Becket’s cousins, but she seems to have picked the wrong family member. Because of how Mary brought up Becket, he and Ruth click in ways that won’t have you push for Henwick and Powell to be in a romance movie, but their chemistry serves How To Make A Killing well. To the point that, between Warren and Ruth, you are pushed to wonder if Becket’s choices are because of a few sentences his mom once said, or him inheriting his grandfather’s ruthlessness.

Low Point(s)

The Ending Feels Far Too Convenient [67/100]

Considering the journey you go on with Becket, it is understandable that it was likely difficult to decide how to end things. We recognize that sticking the landing for any movie is hard, especially when tasked with it being about someone who is killing family members for money. But that doesn’t necessarily excuse an ending that feels flat.

A series of decisions are made that don’t make a huge amount of logical sense, never mind the legality of it all. And mind you, Becket becomes a serial killer in the movie, so it isn’t like How To Make A Killing was logical or rooted in how the law would handle his situation. Yet the final twist it pulls after Becket confesses everything feels unearned and too perplexing to simply be seen as meant to be divisive.

On The Fence

How It Handles The Deaths/Murder Of Becket’s Family [76/100]

Let’s be clear, the only villain in all of this is Becket’s grandfather, Whitelaw Redfellow. His cousins, his aunt and uncles – they may not be saints, and might be rich, but it is hard to say they deserved to die. Sadly, we don’t see anyone in the film really wrestle with the deaths. Warren doesn’t, as he loses most of his family in a year. Becket surely doesn’t, even with most of his family not questioning him being his cousin, and inviting him into their world.

It’s all so strange and mind-boggling. And I get, this is a dark comedy, but with How To Make A Killing avoiding addressing the darkness, just making light of it, too often it seems to just breeze by all that happens. Though what doesn’t help is that Becket has such a superficial take on his mother’s family that you don’t get to see beyond, which further makes every single death feel meaningless.

Overall

Our Rating (75/100): Mixed (Divisive)

While Glen Powell does bounce back from The Running Man with How To Make A Killing, unfortunately, the missing logic, humanity, and choice to take the convenient route whenever possible, undercuts a lot of the positive things that can be said about this film.

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