Get the latest gossip
‘The Alto Knights’ Review: Robert De Niro Plays Two Mafia Frenemies In One Big Misfire
Barry Levinson's The Alto Knights movie seems to be nothing more than a bizarrely boring showcase for Robert De Niro playing mafioso frenemies.
Black and white still photos dot the sluggish runtime as if historicizing itself within the context of a nation that has sold itself on an uncommon talent for image-making, but in reality this tired formal aesthetic choice just reads like something from a student’s tardily handed-in homework on the history of prohibition America. As Costello, De Niro is a mumbling, self-aggrandizing corpse who sees himself as a baron of goodness, for which the only example we’re given is his devotion to his wife Bobbie (Debra Messing, whose severe New York accent is so egregiously out of place she feels as if she’s stuck in a sitcom). As Genovese, De Niro is channeling some version of his oft-seen mafia partner Joe Pesci, with a voice that is slightly higher pitched, a comically oversized jaw, and a temper that flares at the drop of a hat.
Or read this on Deadline
