Movie · 2024 · Comedy, Mystery, Crime · 1h 53m · R · English
Curator score: 1.7/10 (36.6K ratings)
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Overview
The eclectic residents of a small, picturesque island town must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars, leading to a series of increasingly bad decisions which upend the once-peaceful community.
Himesh Patel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily James, Uzo Aduba, Tim Blake Nelson, Simon Rex, Nina Arianda, Jim Gaffigan, José María Yázpik, Joey Lauren Adams, Neva Howell, Thunderbird Dinwiddie, Yingling Zhu, Traci Lords, Michael Harding, Khetphet Phagnasay, Fracaswell Hyman, Kevin M. Brennan, Tamara Hopkins, Travis Przybylski
Curator Review
Verdict
A brisk, Coen-adjacent crime comedy with a strong cast and a pleasingly escalating chain of bad choices. It’s entertaining when the ensemble clicks and the violence finally catches up to the greed, but the plotting can feel familiar and uneven rather than truly sharp.
Best for
viewers who like dark small-town crime comedies
fans of ensemble capers where one mistake snowballs into chaos
people in the mood for a lighter mystery with a nasty streak
audiences who enjoy offbeat performances more than airtight plotting
Skip if
you want a fresh or especially original crime-comedy structure
you dislike tonal shifts from quirky humor to sudden violence
you prefer tightly engineered mysteries with strong logic
you’re looking for a consistently polished, high-end thriller
Overview
Greedy People works best as a shaggy, small-town crime farce: a murder, a pile of cash, and a community full of people making the worst possible decisions. The appeal is less in surprise than in momentum, as the film keeps compounding mistakes until the whole thing tips into bloodier territory.
Worth noting
The cast gives it a lot of life, especially in the scenes that let personalities collide and bad instincts spiral. There’s a clear Coen brothers influence in the mix of eccentric locals, criminal incompetence, and moral collapse, though the film doesn’t always match that template with the same precision or bite.
Bottom line
Still, it’s an easy watch if you enjoy crime comedies that are more scrappy than elegant. It lands enough laughs and enough chaos to stay engaging, even when the twists feel familiar and the tone wobbles a bit.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Kylo (3.5★) · 483 likes
Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a washed-up cop who fluently speaks mandarin as a hobby is my new obsession.
liv🌈 (4.5★) · 345 likes
this is why america needs gun laws 😭 how are 15 of the 20 people in ur small ass town dead
pirateneckbeard (2.5★) · 198 likes
It's definitely darker in tone than I thought but the comedy does swing like opened storm doors in the eye of a hurricane.
The cast is great but I did get a lark out of seeing the leads being Brits with American accents. Really Joseph Gordon-Levitt(Terry) really got to eat up the screen and I was all here for it. This all be said I do think this movie has a fair bit of of disconnecting material that failed to… more It's definitely darker in tone than I thought but the comedy does swing like opened storm doors in the eye of a hurricane.
The cast is great but I did get a lark out of seeing the leads being Brits with American accents. Really Joseph Gordon-Levitt(Terry) really got to eat up the screen and I was all here for it. This all be said I do think this movie has a fair bit of of disconnecting material that failed to… more
JP (3.5★) · 188 likes
Another Coen brothers type film. A bunch of different characters who find themselves in over their heads, leading to a blood-filled final act. A really good balance between the comedy and the intense moments. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is absolutely hilarious in this. The whole cast is great, but man every scene with JGL is great. Him and Himesh Patel have some fantastic chemistry together. Had a fun time with this one.
2024 Ranked
B E R T (4★) · 182 likes
What a pleasant surprise this movie turned out to be. Quirky small town full of offbeat weirdo characters, all played to perfection by a stacked cast. Fantastic and very funny, laugh out loud.
1998 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 2h 1m · R · Curator 8.0/10 (147.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A greed-driven spiral where ordinary people make catastrophically bad choices.