FILM
THE ALTO KNIGHTS
ROBERT DE NIRO: AM I TALKING TO ME?
Original gangster: Robert De Niro as Frank Costello
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 123 MINS
DIRECTOR Barry Levinson
CAST Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli
PLOT Mob bosses Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro) vie for power in 1950s New York.
IF THE DIGITAL de-ageing of the holy trinity of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman was a bit distracting at times, get a load of double De Niro in Barry Levinson’s long-gestating crime thriller The Alto Knights. Demonstrating that when it comes to the greats you can never have too much of a good thing, De Niro plays both leading roles: that of don Frank Costello, on the verge of a quiet retirement, and his hot-headed childhood friend and drug baron Vito Genovese, with whom he’s forced to go toe-to-toe.