‘The Alto Knights’ Review: But They’re Gangsters, Identical Gangsters All the Way [C]

Gangster films have been a staple of cinema since the earliest days and over the last fifty years, few actors are as synonymous with the genre as Robert De Niro. With a career that includes roles like young Vito Corleone and Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, why settle for one De Niro in your mafia movie when you can have two? This is exactly what Barry Levinson delivers with his new film The Alto Knights.

It’s 1957 and Frank Costello (De Niro) enters the lobby of his New York apartment building. Waiting for the elevator, he hears a man call, “Frank!,” followed immediately by the explosion of a gunshot which leaves him bleeding on the floor as his would-be killer flees. But it would take more than a bullet to bring down the boss of the Luciano crime family. Even one ordered by his old friend Vito Genovese (also De Niro).

Working from a script by Nicholas Pileggi (the Oscar-nominated writer of Goodfellas) Barry Levinson returns to the big screen for the first time in ten years. The director who rose to prominence with films like Diner, Good Morning Vietnam, and Rain Man has in recent years been a frequent presence with TV movies for HBO and Max, telling true stories of notorious men including Joe Paterno, Bernie Madoff, and Jack Kevorkian. Levinson is a perfectly acceptable director to bring this story to the screen. He clearly loves the gangster genre and hints at some of the best throughout this less widely known true story. 

The ensuing story is narrated by a much older Frank Costello, one who survived an assassin’s bullet, evaded most legal entanglements, and retired to a quiet life in the suburbs. He goes back to the beginning, delivering a Wikipedia-style summary of key events from his birth in Italy to his family’s American migration, and the friendship with Vito Genovese whose nearly identical background bonded the pair and got them into a lot of trouble in their teen years. Aided by a slideshow of black and white photos, front page news stories, and occasional cutaways to scenes of Prohibition-era violence, Frank paints a picture of Vito the hothead and himself, the calmer, more diplomatic leader.

Through Frank’s recollections, we receive a brief history of organized crime, particularly in New York City, and Costello and Genovese’s places in it. First footsoldiers in the beginning of Prohibition, they quickly rose through the ranks, gaining the confidence of Lucky Luciano himself. Vito became the underboss and Frank the consigliere. Eventually, Lucky wasn’t so lucky and got sent away on a sentence of up to 50 years, ceding operational control to Vito. But Vito found himself in trouble soon after and fled back to Italy to avoid charges in a double homicide, thereby handing the reins over to Frank. In Vito’s absence, Frank expanded and strengthened operations, developed a solid reputation, bought a couple of politicians, and became the Boss of Bosses, leading a somewhat unified national coalition of mafia families. When Vito finally returned to the States, his claim to the Luciano throne was not as strong as it had been and he blamed Frank for stealing what was rightfully his.

Casting Robert De Niro to play both Costello and Genovese – two men who were not related – is an interesting creative choice, as well as something of a challenge for an Academy Award-winning actor who hasn’t seemed challenged by a role in years. The metaphor, two men with similar backgrounds, who grew up in the same neighborhood and had the same opportunities wind up going down very different paths. For reasons that are not clear, Levinson does not continue this metaphor when showing photos and footage of the two younger men, Young Frank played by Luke Stanton Eddy, and Young Vito by Antonio Cipriano.

De Niro approaches each character as differently as they are, though not entirely uniquely to what we’ve seen him do before. His Frank Costello is similar in demeanor and tone to recent characters like William Hale from Killers of the Flower Moon, or an older Frank Sheeran in The Irishman. Costello always remains calm, always knows exactly what to do, thinks he has everything under control. Against the advice of his attorney, he decides to testify before Congress even though everyone around him knows something will go wrong. After the shooting, he makes promises of retirement to his wife Bobbie (Debra Messing as a most elegant worried-wife-waiting at home). Does he actually believe this outcome is possible for them? We don’t really know. Can he be taken at his word, or is he an unreliable narrator? This is one of many questions The Alto Knights neither asks nor answers, leaving the viewer to assume we should accept at least most of what he says at face value.

On the other side of this quasi two-hander, we have Vito Genovese. The film rarely flips to his point of view. Most of what we know about him we learn as Costello tells it to us. But what is clear about Genovese is that he is more emotionally volatile, prone to violence, and doesn’t trust anyone. We see his quick marriage to drag club owner Anna (Kathrine Narducci, another mob genre regular); the ease with which he dispatches perceived enemies; and his persistent belief that Frank is only pretending to retire as part of a bigger plot. De Niro does some things with Genovese we haven’t seen in a long time. There are shades of Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle and Raging Bull’s Jake La Motta, brutish bullies with chips on their shoulders and something to prove. But prosthetics that, oddly, make him look a lot like Robert Duvall, combined with over-the-top and repetitive wiseguy threats give Genovese a cartoonish air that is difficult to take seriously. Still, there is something commendable in the 82-year-old star trying something different after a lifetime of unforgettable performances.

There is a lot of explaining and reminiscing throughout The Alto Knights, but very little in the way of action or even tension. Vito Genovese complains and schemes like a Batman villain while Old Frank Costello tells us all about it, clearly having survived every attempt on his power or life. There is never a point in this story where it feels like something will go wrong for Frank, or like Vito won’t ultimately get what he deserves. Without tension, all we’re left with are a few interesting moments and a couple of truly entertaining scenes including one that leaves a lot of mafia bosses clutching shrimp cocktails as they run for their oversized Buicks, running from cops like teenagers ditching a broken up house party.

Though the dialogue is trite and occasionally ridiculous, and there is never enough momentum to propel the narrative, the talent Levinson assembles behind the scenes delivers some great work. In one notable scene, Frank sits in his living room watching James Cagney in the 1949 classic White Heat while Vito’s associates commit a murder, the violent attack silhouetted by sheets drying on a clothes line. Editor Douglas Crise (Birdman) stitches the parallel images together, highlighting cinematographer Dante Spinotti’s (L.A. Confidential, The Insider) striking visuals even if the homage itself lacks any subtlety. 

With its central gimmick and insistence on telling about events rather than showing them,The Alto Knights might have made a moderately entertaining television movie. If expanded and brimming with more detail, development of other characters, and a deeper examination of the similarities and differences between its two leads, this could be a fascinating limited series. Instead, we are left with a lethargic acting exercise that ties together a few good scenes with a string of uninspired exposition.

Grade: C

Warner Bros will release The Alto Knights only in theaters on March 21.

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Karen Peterson

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