The Alto Knights

The Alto Knights is a 2025 American biographical crime drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi. The film stars Robert De Niro in a dual role as 1950s mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, with Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli in supporting roles.
The Alto Knights was released in the United States on March 21, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures to mixed reviews from critics. It was also a box office failure, grossing $9 million against its estimated $45 million budget and losing Warner Bros. millions of dollars.
In a failed assassination attempt orchestrated by his ambitious underboss, Vito Genovese, Luciano family boss Frank Costello finds himself at a crossroads. Weary of the constant bloodshed and betrayals that define his life, Costello informs Genovese of his intention to retire and cede control of the Luciano family. However, Vito, a man consumed by ambition and paranoia, refuses to believe Costello's intentions, suspecting a ruse. The poisoned well of distrust between them spills over, igniting a silent, deadly war.
Genovese's suspicion curdles into outright aggression when he orchestrates the brutal murder of Albert Anastasia, Costello's chosen successor, while he is sitting in a barber's chair. This act of shocking violence shatters the fragile peace and forces Costello to confront a terrifying reality: his life, and the life of his beloved wife, are hanging by a thread. He realizes that the only way to ensure their safety is to dismantle the entire operation he painstakingly built, to tear down the empire that now threatens to consume him.
Costello understands that Genovese, driven by his overwhelming paranoia, sees him as a lingering threat to his true intention: to seize outright control of the Five Families as capo dei capi. In Genovese's twisted mind, Costello's perceived "mild-mannered" nature is simply a deceptive façade, masking a cunning and vengeful spirit poised to strike back for the failed hit. However, unlike Genovese, Costello is not governed by crude ambition and is willing to play the long game.
Costello formulates a plan, one arguably more audacious than a simple act of retribution within the mafia's brutal code. He eschews the traditional route of murder, recognizing that Vito has gained too many powerful allies who would surely seek vengeance. Instead, Costello opts for a more subtle, insidious approach, leveraging the increased scrutiny already focused on the mafia to orchestrate Genovese's incarceration.
The linchpin of Costello's plan lies in the fateful Apalachin meeting. While never definitively proven, circumstantial evidence suggests that Costello tipped off law enforcement, alerting them to the gathering of powerful mafia figures in the small New York town of Apalachin, where Vito intends to legitimize his new position. Costello furthers the deception by deliberately delaying his arrival, making conspicuous coffee stops and engaging in leisurely apple-picking, all in an attempt to buy time for the authorities to arrive. His almost comical behavior, however, doesn't go unnoticed, sparking suspicion in his driver.
The assembled mobsters are caught completely off guard, panic, and attempt to flee through the woods, leaving a trail of evidence behind. Law enforcement meticulously recorded license plate numbers, leading to the indictment and conviction of twenty attendees on conspiracy to obstruct justice charges for providing false statements about the purpose of the clandestine gathering. The raid at Apalachin exposed the inner workings of the American Mafia to the public, drawing unprecedented scrutiny and ultimately contributing to Vito's downfall several years later when he is formally convicted of dealing in heroin. Costello, on the other hand, achieves his dream of a peaceful retirement and dies an old man.
The film, initially titled Wise Guys, was in the works from as early as the 1970s but over the decades was passed on by every major studio. Warner Bros. Pictures began work on the film in May 2022 and gave it the greenlight that August. Nicholas Pileggi wrote the script and Barry Levinson directed the film starring Robert De Niro in a dual role. In October 2022, Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci joined the cast. In January 2023, Cosmo Jarvis joined the cast.
The production used vehicle vinyl wraps on 1950s-era cars and trucks to make the vehicles look new in the film. Filming took place in December 2022 in Ohio. The production shut down part of US 35 in Greene County, as well as SR 123 in the greater Cincinnati area before moving to the suburbs of Cincinnati. In October 2023, the film was re-titled Alto Knights; a trailer released in January 2025 revealed the final title to be The Alto Knights.
The film was released on March 21, 2025. It was originally scheduled to be released on February 2, 2024, taking over the original release date of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's Toto, and then on November 15, 2024. On October 24, 2023, Variety reported that, because of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Warner Bros. was considering delaying the film's release to 2025.
As of April 3, 2025, The Alto Knight has grossed $6 million in the United States and Canada, and $3.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $9.4 million. Variety reported that between Alto Knights and Mickey 17 (which was itself estimated to lose $75–80 million), Warner Bros. would lose around $110 million.
In the United States and Canada, The Alto Knights was released alongside Snow White and Ash, and was projected to gross $2–3 million from 2,651 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $3.2 million, finishing in sixth; 77% of the audience was over 35 years old, while 58% were men. In its second weekend the film made $1.1 million, dropping 65%.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 40% of 122 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "A competent but tired retread of mob movie tropes, The Alto Knights pits De Niro vs. De Niro with no real victor emerging." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that 44% of filmgoers would "definitely recommend" it.
In Variety, Peter Debruge wrote: "Though there's no shortage of whackings and other spectacular moments unfolding before DP Dante Spinotti's cameras, the tone of The Alto Knights is decidedly less glamorous than your typical gangster movie. ... Unlike The Irishman, which unconvincingly de-aged its cast via distracting CGI, this film relies on prosthetics and makeup to transform De Niro as needed. That approach works better, interfering less with the maestro's performance(s), while sleight of hand allows the actor to appear opposite himself in a handful of scenes." Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "If this film feels familiar, that's because it is. From its pedigree to its casting to its themes, Levinson's new effort comes across like a retread. ... Novelistic in its detail and talky to the extreme, the film feels longer than it is."
For Empire, Laura Venning gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "It all feels like handsomely crafted Scorsese-lite, but enjoyably so, like sinking into a shabby but much-loved armchair. ... De Niro puts in a typically solid, commanding performance as big boss Frank but is clearly having more fun chewing the scenery beneath layers of prosthetics as the volatile Vito, ... Occasionally clunky and retrograde but in the same manner as a story told by a grandparent, The Alto Knights reminds us that De Niro will always be cinema's greatest gangster." Peter Bradshaw, in The Guardian, gave 2/5 stars, writing: "As Vito, De Niro is gloweringly resentful, taciturn, bad-tempered and wears glasses and a hat. As Frank, De Niro is gloweringly resentful, taciturn, slightly less bad-tempered and doesn’t wear glasses or a hat. ... There is a kind of solidity and force to the film in its opening act, but its interest dwindles and we get little in the way of either ambition or moment-by-moment humour."
Wendy Ide in The Observer gave 2/5 stars, writing: "Levinson hit on the bafflingly ill-advised idea of casting Robert De Niro in both of the two lead roles of Frank and Vito. Which, while it does make the picture distinctive, unfortunately doesn't make it good. A meandering Goodfellas-style narration, growled to camera by Frank, fails to boost the film's flagging energy, and since De Niro's approach is to deliver two very slightly different but equally hammy performances, the whole dual-role gimmick is more distracting than interesting. Still, if you must watch it, you can at least amuse yourself by spotting the join where De Niro-as-Frank's fake nose is glued on." In The Independent Clarisse Loughrey also gave 2/5 stars, writing: "Sure, The Alto Knights might provide double the De Niro, but you could easily achieve the same effect by playing Goodfellas and Casino on two screens side by side. It would be about as cohesive an experience."