The Alto Knights (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, a pair of Italian Americans who run two separate crime families in the mid-20th century. Genovese attempted to assassinate Costello in 1957, although Costello retired from the mob.

My Take – Robert De Niro is not just undoubtedly one of the greatest actors ever, he will also always be known as cinema’s most significant gangster. Particularly considering how his filmography is stacked up with classic mob features like The Godfather Part II (1974), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Irishman (2019), to name a few.

His latest entry into the genre, along with writer Nicholas Pileggi (who adapted his own nonfiction books into Goodfellas and Casino), came with all the hype of being based on a true story of mob warfare and for being in the works since the 1970s, only to be finally green lit in 2022.

However, despite the added gimmick of having De Niro play dual roles of mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, the resulting film operates just like any other mafia flick. In the sense, you know what you’re getting into: an enjoyable affair that is also a tad formulaic.

Though it had plenty of potential, for unknown reasons director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Bugsy) chooses to keep the narrative familiar by sticking to playing the greatest hits of the genre.

Sure, there are some good moments of suspense, some humor, and even most of the side characters are well-rounded enough to be believable, unfortunately, it also lacks the mastery that someone like Scorsese brings to his stories.

Simply told, the film doesn’t offer much to get emotionally invested in, and rides an awkward line between caricature and traditional drama, but in the end does just enough to remain a hoot.

The story follows Frank Costello (Robert De Niro), who in his retirement recounts his life, intertwined as it was with that of Vito Genovese (Robert De Niro). Having grown up together and risen the ranks of the mafia together, Frank makes a play for some legitimacy having become the boss of bosses, whilst owing to his legal issues, Vito had to flee to Italy and then remain trapped there as World War 2 broke out.

But when Vito comes back to America, he wants to resume his role at the top and introduce a burgeoning narcotics business to the group. However, a stolid, cautious Frank is unwilling to expand further, especially into drugs, having bribed his way into a cozy and pseudo-respectable position in society. Further infuriating Vito is Frank’s willingness to cooperate as a non-subpoenaed witness in front of grand juries.

And when Frank professes his ambition to retire and domesticate with his wife Bobby (Debra Messing), a paranoid Veto, believing that he would be doing that only by selling out his former criminal pals, sends Vincent Gigante (Cosmo Jarvis) to carry out a hit on Frank, resulting in a brutal and incompetent assassination attempt that leads to further disaster.

The title refers to the postwar New York drinking club where Vito and Frank hung out and all the time-honored familiar mannerisms are here, including an old-fashioned barber-shop assassination and stretches of expository dialogue to tell each other and us what is going on. Clearly aiming for an elegiac tone that is nostalgically mourning both a lost time and a neglected film genre.

The film also makes a play at being a docudrama by adding little memory moments in black and white, as well as snatches of archive footage. Though the story-line (and its real time significance) are both familiar and beholden to genre conventions, they would have worked better as a longer feature or a miniseries, allowing the characters & their actions to spread out a bit and be more impactful.

Nevertheless, there’s a certain amount of panache to the proceedings that do add a fair bit of entertainment value. Particularly in its sillier moments where it finds its groove.

Like the hilarious re-enactment of the fateful Apalachin meeting that sees ageing mobsters struggling to flee from an upstate New York meet-up once the cops begin to arrive, and the debate surrounding the origins of Mormonism’s golden tablets. As the inevitable plot beats slowly unravels, there’s a strange comfort in its predictability and De Niro’s gentle comic timing.

Yes, the film won’t go down as one of the greats, but it’s certainly not destroying anyone’s legacy.

Of course, it helps that the 81 year old actor has delicious chemistry with himself. De Niro puts in a typically solid, commanding performance as big boss Frank but is clearly having more fun chewing the scenery beneath layers of prosthetics as the volatile Vito. He is more natural as Costello, but as Genovese, he goes bigger and broader.

Excellent support comes from Debra Messing, Kathrine Narducci, Robert Uricola, Hugo Jarvis and Michael Rispoli, while Cosmo Jarvis is a standout as a bumbling hit-man. On the whole, ‘The Alto Knights‘ is a decently entertaining mob feature that hooks us with a dual De Niro turn.