What if cousin Greg, one of the most hilarious and, at the same time, despicable characters in the series Succession, were the protagonist of a film? And what if, instead of servilely savoring the crumbs left by his ruthless and wealthy family, he dedicated himself to murdering them one by one to become the sole heir? The result could be similar to this crime comedy written and directed by John Patton Ford, whose inspiration oscillates between the series created by Jesse Armstrong and the nihilistic neonoir of the Coen brothers. The references are obvious and the political discourse (the super-rich are the worst and the world would be a better place without them), as transparent as the crystalline waters in which Beckett (Glen Powell) drowns one of his cousins, a brainless broker who probably deserved it. The problem with this entertaining and original film, which continues to surprise throughout its runtime, is that it only stays on the surface of the criticism it poses against hoarding and extractivist classes, and that, despite his stellar charisma, Glen Powell seems a bit out of place as the loser and disinherited Beckett (what would the clumsy Nicholas Braun, the actor who played Greg in Succession, have done with this character?). To no one's surprise, the best thing about the film is Margaret Qualley, who has a great time embodying a dangerous femme fatale with endless legs.

Stephen King wrote The running man (published in Spanish as the wantedIn the early seventies (a decade before publishing it under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), he wrote the novel, setting it in the year 2025 in a dystopia where the underprivileged participate in risky television game shows hoping to escape poverty. The most extreme (and lucrative) of these is the one that gives the book its title, turning participants into fugitives who must survive the pursuit of relentless hunters and all the viewers hoping to earn a reward by reporting them. Now that the present has caught up with the chronology of the fiction, the prediction of a society absorbed by a harmful audiovisual culture seems accurate, but not particularly shocking.