This money game will slay you.
When it comes to movies about the money game (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Dumb Money,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Hustlers,” etc.), there must be a distinction between working class people and rich people. Some rich people have their own principles, while others like to screw around and throw awesome or lavish parties. But when it comes to “How to Make a Killing,” we need a protagonist who is denied his birthright, raised as a working class citizen, and finding a way to get what’s rightfully his. And you know you’re guaranteed some murder will be in the mix.
We see an incarcerated Beckett Redfellow (Glen Powell) on the day of his execution and telling the visiting priest (Adrian Lukis) his life story. His mother Mary (Nell Williams) was pregnant with him as a teenager, and was kicked out of the rich family by her own father Whitelaw (Ed Harris). Therefore, she became a working class mother raising him in Newark. Despite her death, her family refuses to take in her son (the letter closes with “We hope this finds you well”). And now, despite his punctuality and hard work, he’s working as a tailor being transferred to a warehouse.
Being the youngest member of the family tree, it would take a miracle for him to inherit the family fortune soon by outliving them. But how can he find them?
His cousin Taylor (Raff Law) is the kind of rich person who would throw a bag of money from his helicopter and into a pool of party animals. He’s the easiest one for Beckett to find, and I’m surprised he doesn’t do donuts with a truck.
Taylor’s father (Bill Camp) knew this kid was going off the rails. He also wants to make it up to Beckett for not helping him as a kid, which is why he gives him a job in his firm.
His other cousin (Zach Woods) is a well known photographer (“White Basquiat” as he likes to call himself) with a girlfriend named Ruth (Jessica Henwick), whom Beckett becomes smitten with.
And his other cousin Steven (Topher Grace) has been involved with money laundering schemes, and becomes a successful pastor. He’s the kind who would spread the good word of the Lord like a dude (with the big hairdo, smoothie, and blue jeans) and owns a samurai sword like he’s in a Quentin Tarantino movie.
It appears that Beckett might be making an educational film about how to get away with murder to the goofballs in “Horrible Bosses,” as he manages to pull off the murders without spilling cocaine or shoving toothbrushes up his behind. But then again, there have been polar opposite versions like “Irrational Man” or “Love Crime.” And besides, there’s his old childhood friend (Margaret Qualley), who might be catching on to his games. Even finding a way to get into his apartment like some kind of femme fatale.
“How to Make a Killing” may not exceed the full throttle level of “The Wolf of Wall Street” or the comedy of “Horrible Bosses,” but it does make you laugh, wince, and entertained at the same time. It was written and directed by John Patton Ford, who made one of Sundance’s most successful crime dramas “Emily the Criminal.” He steps it up a notch by tackling on a movie like this-a comedy that knows the targets and speaks with attitude and poetic values.
I’m still disenchanted that Powell’s last film “Running Man” was a box office bomb, because that remake knew what it wanted to accomplish-a fight against a broken money system, while providing entertainment to do so. And in “How to Make a Killing,” Powell knows what his character is getting into, and displays the consistency and timing. And you must also give credit to Qualley for specializing in what appears to be femme fatale roles, and to Woods and Grace for making their rich characters worthy of a money movie like this without seeming so self-indulging.
This is a fun movie that continues Powell’s charms and Ford’s filmmaking versatility. Worth almost every little penny.
