In 2022, writer-director John Patton Ford made his feature debut with Emily the Criminal, a crime thriller in which a woman who desperately needs money takes a shady job to help her make ends meet. While Ford never hid the deeper themes of his film, Emily the Criminal was a tense drama first, that just so happened to be framed within the context of struggling with poverty and the difficulty of getting out of such a desperate situation for those who need help. With his second film, How to Make a Killing, Ford makes the subtext, and it’s not quite as effective as it was in his previous movie. Here, Ford is still addressing what income inequality and economic immobility mean in a world where the rich get richer and the poor fight for what they can get. While Ford’s film is a good bit of fun, mixing together Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and No Other Choice (although not nearly as good at either), How to Make a Killing is more interested in its “eat the rich” concept rather than making a solid thriller, and the difference can absolutely be felt.