Title: The Alto Knights Starring: Robert De Niro Director: Barry Levinson Year: 2025
Runtime: 2h 3 minutes Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The Alto Knights starring Robert De Niro, is a mafia crime drama about the infamous rivalry between Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. The twist being that De Niro plays both roles.

The screenplay is by Nicholas Pileggi, best known for penning Scorsese classics like Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman.

It is directed by Barry Levinson whose previous directing credits include Sleepers, Rain Man and Wag The Dog.

Intro

The Alto Knights tells the story of rival mobsters Vito Genovese and Frank Costello with Robert De Niro playing both roles.

The movie underperformed at the box office and was quickly bumped off, which is a pity because, contrary to what you might have heard, it’s decent.

It’s not a classic, by any means, and it certainly has its fair share of flaws, the most glaring of which is the dual casting decision.

That said, you are getting a 2-for-1 deal on De Niros, playing two of the mafia’s most iconic bosses, plus a script by Nicholas Pileggi, who gave us Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman.

In other words, if you’re not a fan of mafia movies, you’re not going to enjoy this one, but if you’re like me – fuhgedda bout it!

Altos & Sopranos

While underperforming at the box office, The Alto Knights made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The usual cadre of sensationalist shitbags were quick to blame Alto Knight’s underwhelming performance on De Niro’s politics.

De Niro’s not exactly a fan of Trump, to put it mildly, and although La Wokea Nostra review bombed the movie and Trump fans called for a boycott, it’s hardly sufficient to cause the movie to tank.

Instead, the movie’s a victim of bad timing. Had it been released earlier in the year it might have fared better and gotten a longer run.

They should have put it out in January, when only weirdos like me go to the movies looking for actual cinematic sustenance rather than dribbling chicken jockeys having food fights with premium-priced popcorn.

To clarify, the Minecraft Mafia wacked this movie’s box office, not the MAGA Mafia.

And I was just lucky enough to see it before the movie was dumped in an alley to make way for the legions of crafty morons who allegedly made clean-up at my local cinema a living hell.

Which only serves to validate what Scorsese says about the death of cinema. And I’m 100% in agreement.

Only problem is, the last time I saw a Scorsese movie in the cinema I was one of seven people and, after the third hour, only I remained. (You need to work on your TikTok memes Marty!)

If you’re a fan of classic Scorsese gangster fare you will enjoy this. It’s not on the same level but it’s still engrossing.

I’ve always found these characters fascinating. Vito Genovese, an old school mobster; flighty, hungry, an unpredictable paranoid hothead. A gangster’s gangster.

And his polar opposite. Frank Costello, calculating, controlled, level-headed. He’s articulate and media savvy, portraying himself as an “American businessman”, a pillar of the community and a consummate diplomat.

The movie explores the growing animosity between these two characters as well as the famous “Big Meeting” in the Appalachians, where the heads of all the big American families met to work out a new framework for the future. 

It’s an area of mob history that’s ripe for cinema, with names like Carlo Gambino, Joe Bananas, Joe Profaci, Albert Anastasia, the Gallo Brothers…

And there’s so much going on behind the scenes which isn’t covered in the movie, and that’s fine. It’s the story of two men after all, and that’s enough to hold my attention.

The movie is also competently structured and directed but there’s one major and unfortunate flaw. Much as it pains me to say it, the problem is De Niro.

De Niro is known for standout performances, but movies where he disappears into the role to become the character, that’s not his thing, he’s not a chameleon, he’s always a presence.

And this is the main issue with Alto Knights. You can believe him in each of the roles separately, but not together. Had he flipped a coin and picked one character to play, I’m sure he’d be excellent.

But, unlike, say, Tom Hardy in Legend, Robert De Niro fails to convince us we’re looking at two separate men. 

As a result, the cinematic spell is broken and all we do is watch in frustration and go, “Bobby, Bobby – what’ the fuck’s da madda wit yuu?”

And so, The Alto Knights has the opposite effect as intended. Diluting rather than doubling De Niro’s performance and robbing the movie of the impact it could have had, if only De Niro had one of his contemporaries to bounce off.

Because De Niro has always been an actor’s actor. And I’ve no doubt he would have brought the best out in whoever he was paired with.

So we could have gotten a movie with two incredible performances, as opposed to a movie which is decent, but is overall flat and unmemorable.

Imagine him playing against Pacino, Keitel or even Christopher Walken, none of them chameleons either, huge presences, but just imagine how the sparks would fly!

Had this project been made ten years ago, it would have been overhyped and hailed as a masterpiece.

It’s not. But it’s a solid movie that got a bad rap for reasons which have nothing to do with the movie itself and mostly to do with the twisted us-and-them politics which have taken over everything these days, including cinema.

The final nail in The Alto Knights’ coffin, however, is that its central gimmick isn’t the slightest bit original, certainly not in 2025.

Not when we already had another Robert, Robert Pattinson, playing two different clones of the same person in Mickey 17, or Michael B Jordan playing twins in the movie Sinners – both in cinemas around the same time.  

It’s a shame too. This is not a bad film, despite what so many would-be critics and review bombers would have you believe.

It’s just not a great film.

If you’re not a fan of either De Niro and/or mafia movies, you’ll likely find this somewhat tedious.

But as a long-time fan of De Niro with a keen interest in mafia history, I enjoyed it.

It helps that I wasn’t expecting another Goodfellas or Casino going in, so I wasn’t all that disappointed coming out. Instead I was happy to see Bobby and scriptwriter Pileggi enjoying one last lap of the mafia circuit. 

We don’t get any flashy cinematography like Scorsese’s infamous Copacabana scene from Goodfellas. Instead, The Alto Knights feels more like a smaller indie movie but with a budget to spend on ensuring period-accurate costumes and locations.

Similarly, while Pileggi’s script doesn’t come close to the the flick-knife sharpness of Goodfellas, there’s still some great dialogue, dramatic tension and moments of unexpected wiseguy humour.

The Good

Production Design: Period pieces need to feel authentic to be convincing and, on this front, The Alto Knights excels. The sets, the locations, the costumes – all help to make the world feel real.

Mafia History: For me, this type of story, exploring the various machinations of the New York families, is fascinating. If you find mob history interesting and enjoy these kinds of stories, I’m sure you will enjoy this movie.

The Bad

The Timing: I honestly think this movie would have performed better if it were released earlier in the year and not gotten booted aside for bullshit like Minecraft.

And another issue with the timing is…

The Gimmick: Which also isn’t original because we have two other movies where actors play dual roles, all released around the same time. Comparisons are inevitable and, to add insult to injury, De Niro’s dual portrayal doesn’t work, sadly…

The Mmm… Littil Bit

Duelling De Niros:  It’s not that his performances are bad, he plays both characters competently and the technical tricks used to merge the two are seamless.

The problem is it’s Robert De Niro. And regardless of which character is on screen, that’s who we see, Robert De Niro.

And when you’ve got two Robert De Niros on screen, all we see are two Robert De Niros.

Each one out-staging the other.

It’s quite discombobulating to say the least. And given how badly this movie bombed, it may well be remembered as the greatest own goal in acting history.

Memorable Moments

• The wiseguys in the room freaking out while watching Frank Costello testify – “take the fifth!”
• Arguing about Mormons on the way to the Big Meeting (one of the funniest scenes I’ve watched this year.)

The Knights Who Say Meh

The Alto Knights developed a bad reputation for all the wrong reasons.

It’s by no means a perfect movie, but it’s a solid movie about a topic I find fascinating.

And if you, like me, also find mafia history interesting you will enjoy this.

Having said that, I have a funny feeling this will be one of those films which will largely be forgotten in a year or so, making it a prime candidate for my Did I See That? section

A combination of bad timing and poor marketing helped to sink this movie, but nothing can get past the fact that The Alto Knights is a movie that requires a chameleon to pull it off, and Robert De Niro will never be that.

Similar Viewing

The obvious choice would be to go for the trinity of holy trinities; De Niro, Pileggi and Martin Scorsese working together in Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman.

But I don’t always like to go for the obvious choices so instead my first pick is…

A Bronx Tale (1993): Robert De Niro’s directorial debut has always been a firm favourite of mine.

It’s a coming-of-age story about a young boy called Calogero, played by Lillo Brancato, growing up in an Italian neighbourhood in the Bronx.

Calogero, or C as he prefers to be called, develops an unlikely friendship with local mob boss Sonny, played by Chazz Palminteri (who also wrote the script).

De Niro plays Calogero’s overprotective father, a local bus driver who loves baseball and jazz and worries that his son is becoming too enamoured with the mobster life.

Like many mafia movies of the era, it’s packed with memorable characters and wiseguy humour except this also has tons of heart.

There’s also an unforgettable scene where a gang of bikers arrive in the neighbourhood – one of the best ever mob movie scenes in my opinion.

#nowyouscantleave

Analyse This (1999): De Niro and Palminteri star once again in this comedy classic from director Harold Ramis. Not only is this one of De Niro’s funniest movies, it’s also one of his most iconic mafia roles, which is saying something.

The movie opens with a flashback monologue detailing the same characters, the same mob war and the same Big Meeting as The Alto Knights, making this an unlikely companion piece.

Legend (2015): Tom Hardy, now that guy’s a chameleon! He’s played superheroes, supervillains, Mad Max, Al Capone, Picard’s clone… the list goes on and on.

His greatest performance, however, has to be as London’s most famous gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray.

Unlike The Alto Knights, Tom Hardy nails both performances to the point where you have to remind yourself you’re watching one actor playing two roles, not actual twins.

Oh! And I almost forgot, Chazz Palminteri also cameos in this as an American mob representative so yeah, that’s three for three for the Chazzmiester.