I was a big fan of John Patton Ford’s Emily the Criminal (2022), a compelling drama about working-class life in the United States, which showcased Aubrey Plaza’s remarkable range. And I love the Ealing Studios black comedy masterpiece Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), directed by Robert Hamer and starring Dennis Price as an acidly intelligent young Brit whose mother was cruelly disowned by her wealthy aristocratic family (all members played by Alec Guinness), so he sets out vengefully to inherit the dukedom by murdering them all.

Based on these inducements, I turned out for Ford’s How to Make a Killing, a very loose A24 remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets set in the contemporary US. It’s now playing in theaters and getting very bad reviews and almost no attention from the viewing public.

In How to Make a Killing, there’s still a young working-class man, this time an American named Becket Redfellow, played by Glen Powell. His mother, Mary (Nell Williams), was ruthlessly disowned by the Redfellows, her vile billionaire family, played by a variety of actors, including Ed Harris, Topher Grace, Bill Camp, and Zach Woods.