If you were to stitch all of the greatest hits of the gangster genre into a single movie, you could do a whole lot worse than Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights. Written by Nicholas Pileggi (who adapted his own nonfiction books into Goodfellas and Casino) Levinson’s, the latest movie from the director of Bugsy depends entirely on its central gimmick: screen mobster extraordinaire Robert De Niro in the dual role of warring crime bosses. It tends to talk in circles, doesn’t offer much to get emotionally invested in, and rides an awkward line between caricature and traditional drama, but it has just enough visual energy to remain interesting.
The Alto Knights stars De Niro as Frank Costello, a respected mafioso on the edges of legitimacy. It also stars De Niro as Costello’s lifelong friend Vito Genovese, a much seedier gangster who returns to New York after years away and tries to reclaim his throne. Following a failed attempt on his life – a hit he quickly figures out was ordered by Genovese – Costello opts not for the traditional, muscular mob response, but instead takes it as a sign to leave his life of crime. But as we know from decades of movies and TV, you don’t leave the mob until the mob leaves you.
An older Costello narrates most of the onscreen action, which makes for both a minor strength and a major crutch. The wistfulness and air of mischief with which he looks back on the grimy glory days makes Levinson’s story feel alive, but The Alto Knights also heavily depends on exposition to fill in some major gaps. It’s a film that’s largely told, with little by way of actually showing. That is, until it’s time to show how often its characters speak in dull repetition. That’s all in spite of abundant photo-and-film-reel montages that are meant to explain Costello and Genovese’s shared history in Manhattan’s Little Italy, but reveal little more than the time they spent together at the infamous mob hangout The Alto Knights Social Club. Little about their dynamic is ever illuminated, no matter where and when we meet them.
This lack of specificity goes hand in hand with The Alto Knights’ inability to determine whether it’s a straightforward biopic or a self-aware commentary on gangster movies as a whole. Levinson splits the difference: On one hand, De Niro delivers a mostly naturalistic performance as Costello, which matches the registers of co-stars like Debra Messing, Kathrine Narducci, and Robert Uricola. On the other hand, De Niro gets bigger and broader with Genovese, hunching over and pitching up his voice. It’s hard not to see the performance as an impression of (or a tribute to) De Niro’s Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman co-star Joe Pesci. Costello, meanwhile, is colored in shades from the mobsters in De Niro’s past, be they the fictitious Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II or the very real Al Capone in The Untouchables. It’s why you go with De Niro for a role like this: As far back as Analyze This, he’s been molding new characters around archetypes he himself helped build.
This more cartoonish approach ultimately bleeds into the looks of the characters, and their behavior, too. For all its stabs at realism in dialogue and performances, The Alto Knights bears a visual resemblance to Warren Beatty’s live-action-comic-strip version of Dick Tracy. The prosthetic nose De Niro wears as Costello protrudes like that of a Halloween-costume witch; playing Genovese, he’s given a jaw so square, it almost makes his head seem too big for his body. (From some angles, he looks like a Funko Pop.) Cosmo Jarvis, who plays the would-be assassin Vincent Gigante, hobbles around with an enlarged barrel chest and a triple (sometimes quadruple) chin.
This all works best when Costello and Genovese share the screen; unfortunately, they don’t have many scenes together. In the rare De Niro-versus-De Niro moments, the actor fires on all cylinders. He creates glances of thought, doubt, and desire out of practically nothing, and turns tedious conversations into riveting negotiations. The most exciting sequence is one where Genovese and Costello share an emotional connection despite being separated by several states: The former watches (and responds out loud to) a televised congressional hearing at which the latter speaks.
This is the one time The Alto Knights approaches real depth and tension. Granted, this scene is just as dialogue-heavy as the rest of the film, but its words disguise and reveal self-doubt in equal measure, rather than simply stating the character’s thoughts and feelings out loud. The colorful ensemble does its best to breathe life into the movie, but ultimately, it struggles to entice and endear, listing through endless scenes with no direction. With De Niro at the helm of Levinson’s mob-movie curiosities, you’re at least guaranteed a seasoned hand and a novel combination of desires and impulses courtesy of one of Hollywood’s greatest talents. That’s worth something, even if The Alto Knights as a whole fails to do anything new with the familiar trappings of gangsters, molls, betrayals, and assassinations.
