With a profession that goes again seven a long time, Robert De Niro has made an influence on nearly each style, however he’ll all the time be seen as a legend from gangster movies. From The Godfather Half II to As soon as Upon A Time In America to The Untouchables to Goodfellas and extra, he’s a star who has an outsized influence on the historical past of organized influence in cinema, and it’s an unignorable facet of his oeuvre.
The Alto Knights
Launch Date: March 21, 2025
Directed By: Barry Levinson
Written By: Nicholas Pileggi
Starring: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli
Score: R for violence and pervasive language
Runtime: 120 minutes
If this reflection feels acquainted, it’s as a result of it’s one movie-lovers analyzed an incredible deal comparatively just lately across the launch of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. In 2019, the movie ended up being worthy of the legacy discuss, because it’s an epic on a tier with De Niro’s greatest – however six years later, Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights seems like a drop of poison within the effectively. You don’t wish to take into consideration the actor’s historical past within the style in live performance with it as a result of it has no optimistic contributions.
On prime of Robert De Niro starring in a brand new gangster film, the gimmick right here is that the star performs twin roles, however the truth that this finally ends up being a really badly executed gimmick is barely a part of the movie’s issues. Continually dumping out exposition and the story dragging at a snail’s tempo, the narrative lacks even probably the most distant idea of power and by no means delivers a single satisfying sequence (regardless of coming from two filmmaking greats in Levinson and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi). Virtually each scene drags out two minutes longer than needed, the dialogue so stilted and empty that it seems like dangerous improv, and whereas it often methods you into pondering one thing fascinating is coming across the nook, nothing of the type ever materializes.
Robert De Niro performs each Frank Costello and Vito Genovese – main New York Metropolis crime figures by means of the center a long time of the 20th century. Whereas the 2 males grew up collectively and lengthy see one another as greatest pals, their dynamic modifications when Vito flees the nation to keep away from legal expenses and leaves his legal enterprise in Frank’s arms to regulate.
All the things within the underworld is operating easily due to Frank’s management, however when Vito returns to the US, the edgy, quick-tempered gangster not solely needs his energy again, however he needs to introduce arduous medicine into the enterprise. Amenable, Frank cedes some energy, however their battle continues to escalate – warmth added by authorities investigations into organized crime – till the purpose the place Vito places out successful on his childhood pal that finally ends up being botched.
In a yr stuffed with twin performances, Robert De Niro significantly underwhelms.
Between Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights, Theo James in The Monkey, Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, and Michael B. Jordan within the upcoming Sinners, audiences are seeing plenty of twin performances on the large display screen within the first half of 2025. De Niro’s flip is not going to be remembered as a spotlight of the pattern.
A part of the issue is the final strategy; in contrast to all the different films talked about above, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese are usually not brothers or twins or clones, and as unbiased individuals, there may be not sufficient distinguishing them to make the twin efficiency fascinating. Vito is a hothead and wears darkish glasses in all places, and Frank is extra relaxed and has a bit extra hair. That’s just about the total extent of it. Largely, you’re simply actively conscious of De Niro attempting to drag off a twin efficiency and the job not getting carried out.
The compelled scenes the place the 2 characters work together one-on-one are wholly unreal – and never simply due to the clear efforts to in any other case make the sequences so simple as potential (the 2 males usually sitting on reverse sides of restaurant tables and left undisturbed ). With enhancing sharing a number of the blame, it’s by no means convincing that they having a pure dialog; the tried twin efficiency is continually clear, and it by no means allows you to have interaction with the content material of the interplay.
The story in The Alto Knights is extremely uninteresting, and the dialogue is exasperating.
To be truthful, the distraction of De Niro’s double work is considerably welcome within the sense that it’s one thing to actively ponder as scene after scene of lifeless conversations unfurl. There are what really feel like a dozen scenes that play out with this rhythm:
“He doesn’t belief you.”
“He doesn’t belief me?”
“He doesn’t belief you.”
“What do you imply he doesn’t belief me?
“He doesn’t belief you due to that factor you probably did.”
“How may he not belief me due to that factor I did? How dare he!”
“What can I say? He doesn’t belief you.”
If I’m being beneficiant, I’d say that it’s a swing at pure, off-the-cuff dialogue, however they drag on excessively and are of so little substance that you end up mentally begging for the movie to maneuver on.
Including insult to harm is the laziness of the storytelling. It’s dangerous sufficient that the film takes the shortcut of an in medias res opening by beginning the primary act with the failed assassination of Frank Costello (simply probably the most fascinating factor that occurs within the two-hour runtime), however the story can be spoon fed to the viewers with Frank offering fixed voiceover narration explaining what is going on (the movie additionally often cuts to pictures of him telling his story instantly into the digital camera which can be in the end given zero context). Like Robert De Niro, Nicholas Pileggi is a legend within the gangster style – his credit together with Goodfellas and On line casino – however The Alto Knights is a title to be forgotten from his filmography.
Whereas I don’t like to provide away spoilers in evaluations, it is a movie the place the large third act climax is a bunch of crime bosses fleeing a gathering once they spot cops writing down license plate numbers; in the meantime, the protagonist is killing time going to roadside fruit stand on his technique to the assembly. The Alto Knights seems prefer it had the potential to be a style traditional on paper, however the execution leaves one wanting in nearly each respect, and I’m prepared to guess that anybody who sees it on the large display screen can be challenged to recollect particulars from it in a yr’s time.