A very fun new thriller movie is available to watch right now

The star-studded and stylish film boasts a truly killer premise.

The movie revolves around Becket (Glen Powell, The Running Man), a young man who is a part of the wealthy Redfellow dynasty, led by the billionaire patriarch Whitelaw (Ed Harris).

Growing up, however, Becket never got to meet Whitelaw or experience the benefits of his riches. Becket's mother was exiled from the clan after becoming pregnant with him as a teen, before dying when Becket was just a boy.

Left an orphan after Whitelaw and the rest of the Redfellows refused to care for him, Becket becomes fixated with his estranged relatives.

Realising that he would claim Whitelaw's money if the billionaire and all the remaining Redfellows were to die, the young man concocts a plan to "prune the family tree".

How to Make a Killing is the second feature from writer-director John Patton Ford. It comes after his debut, Emily the Criminal, a smart and tense 2022 thriller that starred Aubrey Plaza as a cash-strapped young woman who enters a life of crime to get out of debt.

If Emily the Criminal may have suffered slightly from its modest budget (reportedly $1.5 million), How to Make a Killing certainly does not. Costing $15 million, Ford's latest is a much more stylish affair, full of impeccably dressed stars; scenes that play out in lavish interiors and scenic exteriors; kinetic and zippy montages; and cool needle drops.

While the tone of How to Make a Killing - which is inspired by the classic '40s British comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets - leans more farcical and funny than Emily the Criminal, it does cement its writer-director as having a knack for capturing in micro moments the underlying tensions that exist between the haves and have-nots.

One of the best scenes in How to Make a Killing is early on when Beckett, working as a suit salesman, has a chance encounter with the more affluent Julia (Margaret Qualley). The pair were friends as children but drifted apart after Becket's mother died.

Now adults, the awkwardness radiates off the screen as Julia brags about her jet-setting adventures and new wealthy fiancé (Black '47's James Frecheville), while Becket tries and fails to convey that he is part of the same class.

It's scenes like this - along with Powell's charismatic lead turn, how Becket's mother was abandoned by her family, and the obviously heightened premise - that keep viewers on the lead character's side. This is even as he inveigles his way into the lives of his estranged family members before murdering them in increasingly convoluted ways - killings he never expresses any guilt about.

There is good dark fun to be had in How to Make a Killing, as most members of the Redfellows play into a different rich person stereotype. Comedian Zach Woods is hilarious, portraying Becket's nepo artist cousin, who has a girlfriend (a charming Jessica Henwick) that Becket takes a liking to.

Qualley is also a scene-stealer, as the Chanel-wearing Julia comes to embroil herself in Becket's scheme, slowly revealing herself to be a noir-style femme fatale that is even more sociopathic than him.

Margaret Qualley in How to Make a Killing

That said, aside from the unexpected bond that forms between Becket and his uncle Warren (the always excellent Bill Camp), the one Redfellow who expresses regret about what happened to his mother, there aren't many surprises in How to Make a Killing, which also starts to massively strain credulity as it nears its conclusion.

Ford's film suffers from hitting cinemas just after No Other Choice, the South Korean comedy thriller that saw an unemployed man concoct a plan to kill his competitors for a job opening in his field. That movie took a unique approach to "eat the rich" narratives, focusing on how capitalism can pit working-class colleagues and/or comrades against each other.

How to Make a Killing, coming out after a wave of class satires (see also the Knives Out trilogy, The Menu, Parasite, Succession, Triangle of Sadness, and The White Lotus), ultimately doesn't add much to the conversation. It's content to reiterate the true, if already well-established, points that the wealthy can be cruel, and capitalism can turn people into monsters.

It's this lack of anything truly new to say which prevents this Glen Powell vehicle from reaching true greatness. The film, however, still remains a very entertaining way to spend 100 minutes, thanks to its fine performances, slick direction, and killer premise, and so long as readers go in expecting something pulpy if not exactly profound.

How to Make a Killing is in cinemas now.