Film reviews: How to Make a Killing is stylish, elegant, and blackly comic

The offbeat serial-killer comedy asks us to suspend our morality and root for the ruthless, cold-blooded killer.

Fri, 13 Mar, 2026 - 12:00

Declan Burke

How To Make a Killing

★★★★☆

Be honest, now: Who wouldn’t “prune a few branches of the family tree” in order to inherit billions of dollars?

How to Make a Killing (15A) opens on Death Row, with Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) awaiting execution and recounting the tragedy of his life to Father Morris (Adrian Lukis).

Born into obscene wealth, Becket was disinherited by his grandfather, Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris), when his mother had the temerity to get pregnant at a young age.

Now a working-class stiff, Becket bumps into his childhood play-mate Julia (Margaret Qualley), who quietly suggests that a mere handful of trust-fund leeches stand between Becket and the billions he’s entitled to. Does Becket have the wherewithal to go out and take what is rightfully his?

Written and directed by John Patton Ford, How to Make a Killing is an offbeat serial-killer comedy that asks us to suspend our morality and root for the ruthless, cold-blooded killer. That’s not an especially difficult leap to make, and partly because Becket more or less stumbles into his vocation by accidentally murdering his first victim, and then deciding that he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

It helps that Glen Powell is a charming presence here, playing Becket as an unassuming blue-collar guy who is partially motivated by his mother’s dying wish that he reclaim his rightful inheritance; and the humorously morbid tone, reinforced by Powell’s laconic voiceover, makes it easy for the audience to play along.

Powell gets strong support from Margaret Qualley as the manipulative femme fatale, Julia and Bill Camp as Becket’s unsuspecting uncle Warren, and there’s a terrific cameo from Ed Harris as the viciously uncompromising patriarch Whitelaw.

Stylish, elegant, and blackly comic, How to Make a Killing is a deliciously subversive thriller.

Reminders of Him

★★★☆☆

Reminders of Him (12A) stars Maika Monroe as Kenna Rowan, a young woman released from prison after serving time for the manslaughter of her boyfriend Scott.

Desperate to reconnect with her young daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic), who was born in prison and is being raised by Scott’s parents Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick (Bradley Whitford), Kenna returns to her hometown in Wyoming, where she runs up against Ledger (Tyriq Withers), Scott’s best friend and the father figure in Diem’s life.

Adapted by Lauren Levine from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, and directed by Vanessa Caswill, Reminders of Him centres on a wonderfully empathic performance from Maika Monroe: Kenna, who is still grieving her beloved Scott, is obliged to delicately navigate a minefield of pain and desolation in trying to persuade Diem’s grandparents, and particularly Ledger, of her bona fides.

Tyriq Withers offers a quietly complex turn, as Ledger finds himself torn between his duty of care to Diem and his growing appreciation for Kenna’s impossible situation; and while the narrative arc bends inexorably towards its inevitable conclusion, it’s an emotionally engaging drama of domestic tragedy and redemption.

One Last Deal

★★★☆☆

Unfolding over the course of a single day, One Last Deal (16s) stars Danny Dyer as Jimmy Banks, an agent in the cutthroat world of professional football.

With his only client Matt Gravish (Elliott Rogers) on trial for alleged rape, Jimmy wheels and deals, pounding the phone as he tries to secure one last lucrative deal, all the while fending off a blackmail bid that implicates Jimmy in the attempt to cover up Elliott’s crime.

Written by Peter Howlett and directed by Brendan Muldowney, One Last Deal is a tense, testosterone-fuelled one-man show from Dyer, with all the action taking place in Jimmy’s office as he interacts with all the other characters on the phone.

It’s a high-risk strategy that largely pays off, as Dyer leans into his charismatic persona as a wide-boy Cockney geezer, spewing profanities as he threatens and cajoles and sinks ever deeper into his moral cesspit.