The Alto Knights - Review

2025 is set to be a year of actors playing multiple roles. A few weeks back Robert Pattinson played multiples in Mickey 17, and then in a few weeks, there is Sinners where Michael B Jordan is playing twins. In The Alto Knights, Robert De Niro plays gangster besties turned rivals Frank Costello and Vito Genovese in a film based on a true story. However, the only joy of The Alto Knights is a return to the genre on the big screen, paling in comparison to the likes of Goodfellas or even The Irishman.

The film is set in 1957 New York. Mob Boss Frank Costello is attending a gala event that he has funded. Costello isn’t your stereotypical gangster mafioso; however, he hasn’t held a gun in years and is well respected in the community, he is painted as an honourable man with friends in important circles. Frank leaves the event and walks back to his apartment, on the way up to his penthouse, his name is called out and before he has time to fully turn around he has a bullet to the head. However, Frank miraculously survives the ordeal with the bullet curving around his head.

The perpetrator was hired by an agitated and angry Vito, De Niro’s other character, who was once inseparable from Frank. In their youth though they slowly grew apart, and when Vito fled back to his native Italy, he was cut out of the business leaving him bitter and resentful of Frank. In surviving the ordeal, Frank says he is done with the gangster lifestyle, but he has to cut off some loose ends.

The Alto Knights, named after the social club that the two leads grew up going to, feels simply like a pastiche of gangster films of the past, particularly the work of Martin Scorsese. This is obvious simply from the basic casting of De Niro, which lacks any sort of imagination – De Niro isn’t necessarily bad here, but it feels like a bored and workmanlike performance. Likewise, it uses music similar to Goodfellas but fails to understand why it worked, with the film lacking freneticism and rhythm in its pacing.

Yet there is something to be said for the nostalgic sentiment The Alto Knights has. The gangster genre feels barely present within the current cinematic landscape. A genre of danger, a lust for power, volatility and a struggle to deal with the moral repercussions. By design, The Alto Knights in its imitation feels interesting as I steadily began to yearn for the return of this once-great genre. Whilst it is not particularly special, and the De Niro double casting is a little odd, there is enough in this bog standard picture to engage and long for more.