The Alto Knights Review - If Scorsese worked from home

1 day ago4 min read

“Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.” - Al Capone

In 2017, The Snowman was set to premiere. Originally it had Martin Scorsese attached to direct with Michael Fassbender starring. I was very excited so I purchased the book the movie would be based on. Written by Jo Nesbø, the story is brimming with terror and dreadful mystery. It feels dangerous and so personal to its main protagonist who is a homicide detective in Oslo, Norway. With such esteemed people at the helm I was expectedly optimistic. But the dominoes were yet to fall.

First Scorsese dropped out. I was saddened by this but remained hopeful when another talented filmmaker, Tomas Alfredson, stepped in. He is responsible for such films as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Let the Right One In among others projects. Still starring Michael Fassbender and edited by illustrious editor and longtime Scorsese collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker. It also had Dion Beebe as cinematographer who has worked on projects such as Edge of Tomorrow and Michael Mann’s Collateral. Despite Scorsese’s exit (remained on project as executive producer), the talent, in front of and behind the camera, was still in great abundance. So it begs the question - What the hell happened? What should have been a stand-alone, future classic thriller, begging for sequels, ended up as one of the worst movies of that year. It is abysmal in every way imaginable. Visually it’s fine but is depleted by terrible editing, lackluster performances and a muddled plot. So many missteps during production led to an unmanageable post production resulting in a final product that simply could not be saved. Why bring this all up? Because it has seemingly happened again with The Alto Knights.

Directed By Barry Levinson, creator of Rain Man, Man of the Year and Wag the Dog. It is written by Nicholas Pileggi, writer of Goodfellas and Casino. Irwin Winkler produced, who is behind such projects as Rocky, Goodfellas and The Irishman. And then of course it stars the peerless Robert De Niro in dual roles alongside a myriad of talented and eclectic actors like Debra Messing and Cosmo Jarvis. So much talent and the end result is a boring, meandering attempt of the gangster genre. With a runtime of just barely two hours, by the start of the second hour I was anxiously trying to remain still having checked out of the film long before it ended. Not wanting to give up on it though I stuck with it as best I could never again finding the desire to care about any of it any longer.

De Niro plays Frank Costello, an unassuming boss of the Luciano crime family. He prefers a more laid back approach, an influence from the shadows so to speak. His longtime childhood friend, Vito Genovese, also played by De Niro, is more headstrong and believes in a more forceful hand. This also means he’s quick to anger. And seeing Costello unwilling to relinquish control when Vito returns from a long hiatus enrages him and sets off an irreversible chain of events. Their friendship? Long since dead. Their willingness to remain peaceful? Pending…

The story, based on true events and real life people is fascinating. Something about the execution has left this attempted telling as limp and innocuous as a wilting flower in winter. And then there’s De Niro’s recent character trait that he seems to incorporate into every character he plays. He develops a kind of stutter which inevitably prompts his hands to begin flailing around as if his mouth can’t find the words so his hands are trying to pull them from the sky. It’s distracting and weird and at times feels like he is simply, possibly, maybe, getting too old for this. I hate to say it but he does it in The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon and now The Alto Knights. He gets away with it in the first two but now it’s becoming a distraction. A small pet peeve perhaps but it affected my viewing nonetheless.

My greatest complaint is a whole lot of promises lead to absolutely nothing. On the poster it says, “Inspired by the true story of the mob boss who brought about the downfall of the American mafia.” Sounds exciting. The way it transpires, in the film at least, it depicts a bunch of old fogies past their prime getting spooked by a lingering cop and decide to bolt from an large, orchestrated meeting of mafia royalty which essentially proves the existence of the mafia all across the nation. It’s as anti-climactic as it gets. So much potential leads to so much mediocrity. It’s a mystery.

The Alto Knights feels like two hours of mafioso chest puffing that never results in anything. It’s stereotypical Italian gangster buffoonery that feels borderline forced every step of the way. It’s a gangster movie with Italian American actors. Of course they have to scrunch their faces when they speak and wildly throw their hands around while simultaneously complaining about the gabagool.