122 min | R | March 21, 2025 | Warner Bros. Pictures
Robert De Niro plays two 1950s mob bosses in a turf war. Barry Levinson directs. Neither of them finds anything new in the well-worn genre they helped define.
Mob movies have rules. Loyalty, betrayal, violence, and the inevitable fall. The Alto Knights follows every one of those rules with the enthusiasm of a student filling out a worksheet. De Niro plays both Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, two New York crime bosses whose friendship deteriorates into open warfare. The dual role is a technical achievement. The characters are indistinguishable beyond surface mannerisms.
De Niro does professional work without finding any depth or surprise. He’s played variations of these men for forty years. The script by Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote Goodfellas and Casino, recycles beats from better films. The supporting cast, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli, deliver exactly what’s expected and nothing more. No one embarrasses themselves. No one elevates the material.
Barry Levinson directed some of the best films of the eighties and nineties. Diner, Rain Man, Bugsy. He knows how to tell stories about men and power and the cost of ambition. This feels like he’s going through the motions. The period recreation is competent. The violence is perfunctory. The emotional stakes are nonexistent. The film hits its marks and generates no energy.
The problem is not execution. The problem is purpose. This story has been told better by the same people. The film exists because De Niro and Levinson can still get financing for mob movies. That’s not a reason to make one. This is a genre film by people who helped define the genre, delivering work that feels tired and obligatory.