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Robert De Niro’s Box Office Bomb Is Now a Surprise Smash on Streaming(Photo Credit –YouTube)

In an industry filled with superhero fatigue and recycled sequels, The Alto Knights seemed like a sure bet. Directed by Barry Levinson, the period gangster drama features Robert De Niro as not one but two notorious mob bosses. On paper, it had every element needed to succeed at the box office. However, things didn’t exactly go as planned when it debuted in theaters in March 2025.

The $45 million budgeted crime saga floundered, earning just $9.5 million at the global box office, as per Box Office Mojo. Reviews were mixed, the buzz fizzled, and The Alto Knights quietly disappeared from theaters. But something unexpected happened, as the film began to surge back on streaming platforms. So here’s all you need to know about The Alto Knights.

What Is The Plot Of The Alto Knights?...

Robert De Niro's ambitious movie The Alto Knights will make its streaming debut later this week. De Niro plays dual roles as two infamous crime bosses in the thriller based on a true story.

De Niro fans who missed The Alto Knights during its March 2025 theatrical release will be able to see the film when it has its Max premiere on Friday, June 6. The project features two important reunions for De Niro: he re-teamed with Wag the Dog director Barry Levinson on the film, as well as Goodfellas and Casino screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi.

The 1950s period crime drama centers around the real-life mafia war between Luciano family boss Frank Costello and conniving underboss Vito Genovese -- both played by De Niro. When Costello announces his intent to retire, a paranoid Genovese suspects it's all a ruse and starts plotting to take down the family's boss. Costello is forced into...

Former “Saturday Night Live” writer Bob Odenkirk revealed his favorite unaired sketch from his 1987–1991 tenure on the show.

During a Friday appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Odenkirk reflected on the four years he spent working on “SNL” and the cast members he got to work with, including Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler and Chris Farley. When asked by Clarkson if he had a favorite sketch he wrote during his “SNL” run that never aired, Odenkirk replied, “There was one, in particular, I really loved. I wrote it for Jon Lovitz, if you know him. Very funny guy.”

“It’s about a hot dog vendor in New York and he’s got a trainee. He says [to his trainee], ‘Ok, you take the next guy.’ The guy walks up and he [asks for] a hot dog with mustard,” Odenkirk continued. “[The trainee] gives him a hot dog, puts mustard on it and hands it to him and, as...

Elvis Costello has extended his 2025 “Radio Soul!: The Early Songs of Elvis Costello” tour with 22 new East Coast and Midwest dates scheduled for September and October. As with his upcoming summer dates, Costello will be joined by The Imposters with Charlie Sexton.

The new leg kicks off on September 18th in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Costello and The Imposters with Charlie Sexton will then stop in cities including Boston, Toronto, Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. See the full tour schedule below.

Get Elvis Costello & The Imposters Tickets Here

Tickets for Elvis Costello’s newly announced dates will first be available through an artist pre-sale (sign up here) starting on Wednesday, April 23rd at 10:00 a.m. local time, followed by a Live Nation pre-sale for select dates (use code Dance) on Thursday, April 24th, also at 10:00 a.m. local time. The general on-sale begins on Friday, April 25th at 10:00 a.

Stars: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Kathrine Narducci, Cosmo Jarvis, Michael Rispoli, Robert Uricola, Frank Piccirillo, Matt Servitto | Written by Nicholas Pileggi | Directed by Barry Levinson

The Alto Knights, directed by Barry Levinson, brings together a talented cast, with Robert De Niro in the spotlight, portraying dual roles. The film sets out to explore the complex world of 1950s New York mobsters, but while it has all the right ingredients for a gripping crime drama, it ultimately falls short of becoming a memorable entry in the genre.

De Niro’s dual performance as Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, two real-life mob bosses, is certainly an ambitious choice. On paper, the idea of him playing both characters sounds intriguing. However, the execution feels a bit lacklustre. The portrayal of Costello as the calm and calculating “gentleman gangster” and Genovese as the paranoid, impulsive hothead does not carry the emotional weight that...

“The Alto Knights” is a 2025 movie from director Barry Levinson starring big names like Robert De Niro as Frank Costello/Vito Genovese, Debra Messing as Bobbie, Kathrine Narducci as Anna, Cosmo Jarvis as Vincent Gigante, and more. The movie explores the intense rivalry between Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, with each vying for control of the Luciano family.

The Alto Knights (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis: Who is Frank Costello & Vito Genovese?

The film opens with mafia boss Frank Costello being gunned down in the lobby of a building. Luck, however, is on Costello’s side. He miraculously survives, even after taking a bullet to the head. The police press him for answers, trying to get the name of the shooter or whoever might have hired the hitman. But he claims he has no idea who would want him dead, insisting he’s just a simple man with no known enemies.

Warner Bros bet on Robert De Niro’s gangster appeal and doubled down on it with a dual role in The Alto Knights, but the audience has spoken, and the box office doesn’t look so good, nor are critics happy with this feature from veteran director Barry Levinson. While the movie had all the right talents attached, it fell short on its appeal to the fans, and De Niro’s dual role didn’t help. But there’s still hope, as the studio has released the movie on VOD.

Fans of Levinson and De Niro, who couldn’t make it to the theatres now, have the opportunity to watch the movie at the ease of their homes. Furthermore, the movie will be released on Blu-Ray on May 27 with bonus content. The movie casts De Niro as not one but two real-life figures from the world of organized crime during the mid-1900s.

“Are we not in this sense parts of a greater organism, kept alive through the ever more vividly circulating blood of an enormous past?” Biochemist Erwin Chargaff uses this analogy of circulating blood to describe the life-affirming virtue of memory. His proposition asserts that memory is not simply an element of a distant future. It pumps life into the present. Whether the choice of the analogy is deliberate is unknown; however, what stands out peculiarly is the invisible harmony between the shape and scope of biological and philosophical constructs. The Circle of Willis mirrors the circle of time, the doorway to memory. Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (2016) emulates this topology and features it as its central enigma.

Arrival (2016) Movie Synopsis and Plot Summary:

Linguistic scholar Louise Banks is contacted by the US Army when an extraterrestrial spaceship is seen hovering too close to the surface of the Earth in Montana. Eleven...

A stage show that intermingles music and life stories isn’t new in rock; just ask Bruce Springsteen and Ray Davies. But Jesse Malin already knows one way in which his first foray into the genre will be set apart from those that came and rocked before.

“The play opens in the hospital,” Malin says from his East Village home in New York. “And I’m telling somebody what happened to me and that I’ve canceled tours and haven’t played my guitar. There’s a guitar next to the bed and a wheelchair,...

Gangster films have dominated the silver screen for almost as long as movies have existed. Stemming from the crime film genre, gangster films typically focus on organized crime while following the rise and fall of criminals. The criminal's actions are heavily explored, and the film often expresses the effects that their actions have on society. Gritty violence goes hand in hand with the theme of "crime doesn't pay" and with justice prevalently taking over the theme. Martin Scorsese is no stranger to the genre, creating numerous gangster films throughout different periods of history. After creating such great gangster films as Goodfellas and Gangs of New York, Scorsese went on to remake a successful Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs.

The remake of Infernal Affairs took the core cat-and-mouse story but relocated the setting to Boston. Scorsese wanted to ground the story into some realism, so it was loosely inspired by the infamous mobster Whitey Bulger.

Bill Murray regrets never working with Clint Eastwood.The 74-year-old actor is a huge fan of the 94-year-old actor and director and regrets turning down the opportunity to work with him many years ago.When asked by Howard Stern: "Have you ever watched a film and said I want to act with this guy so bad?,” Murray replied: “A long time ago, I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day like 'Thunderbolt' and 'Lightfoot' or whatever the hell the movies he was making then, and I thought his sidekick gets killed and he avenges, but the sidekick gets a great part, a great death scene [and] I was like ‘I got to call this guy.'”However, although Bill reached out to Clint and was offered a role in an upcoming movie, he turned it down due to fear of being typecast.He said: "So I...

Bill Murray has his “What if” moments.

The Lost in Translation star recently appeared on The Howard Stern Show and reflected on one gig he wishes he had done. “Have you ever watched a film and said I want to act with this guy so bad?,” Stern asked, to which Murray said, “A long time ago, I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot or whatever the hell the movies he was making then, and I thought his sidekick gets killed and he avenges, but the sidekick gets a great part, a great death scene [and] I was like ‘I got to call this guy.'”

Well the actor then did end up calling Eastwood “out of the blue” and Eastwood asked him, “Would you ever want to do another service comedy?” At the time, Murray had just done the war-comedy movie, Stripes.

Although Murray...

Bill Murray has few regrets over his eventful career, but there was one potential role he says he wishes he hadn’t turned down.

The former “Saturday Night Live” star told Howard Stern that he missed the chance to do a movie with Clint Eastwood — possibly out of fear of being typecast.

“I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’ or whatever the hell the movies he was making then, and I thought: ‘His sidekick gets killed, and he avenges, but the sidekick gets like a great part, a great death scene,’” he told Stern earlier this week.

Murray was coming off of making the 1981 hit comedy “Stripes,” and decided to call Eastwood and let him know he was interested.

“I was like, I got to call this guy. So I called him out of the blue, and he said, ‘Would you ever want to do another service comedy?...

Bill Murray is one of Hollywood's most respected actors, having made a name for himself with a plethora of hit films over the years. According to the actor himself, he doesn't have many regrets, though there remains one film he rejected in the 80s that he's still regretting today.

Murray discussed the role that got away during a recent interview on The Howard Stern Show. The Ghostbusters star remembered how in the early 80s, he was really enjoying the movies Clint Eastwood would put out. Though Eastwood's sidekicks would often get killed, they were still great parts to play, leaving Murray with a desire to team up with the Dirty Harry actor. After Murray personally contacted him, they discussed possibly co-starring in a movie focused on the Navy. The problem was that Murray was worried about getting typecast in military-themed films, as he was coming off of starring in Stripes,...

Although Bill Murray has plenty of hit films to his name, there’s one role he wishes he didn’t turn down.

The Oscar nominee recently revealed “one of the few regrets” he has in his career after his attempt to work with Clint Eastwood in a film, following the success of his own 1981 army comedy Stripes.

“A long time ago I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot or whatever the movies he was making then, and I thought: ‘His sidekick gets killed, and he avenges, but the sidekick gets like a great part, a great death scene,'” he recalled on The Howard Stern Show.

“I was like, I got to call this guy. So I called him out of the blue, and he said, ‘Would you ever want to do another service comedy?’ Because I just made Stripes and he had...

The crime genre continues to be a hit or miss for Hollywood in the modern day. Even with Robert De Niro's slight resurgence in the 2020s, his success hinges on who he decides to collaborate with. After The Irishman proved that De Niro still works best with Martin Scorsese, the legendary actor continued his reunion with Scorsese in 2023 with Killers of the Flower Moon. What these films have in common is a Scorsese factor that simply doesn't exist with every film De Niro decides to do. Robert De Niro's prolific career has continued to solidify his status as arguably the greatest actor of all time. However, De Niro is no stranger to duds and flops, especially in the 21st century. His most recent collaboration with director Barry Levinson is another example of a movie that should've been better than it was.

Aside from The Alto Knights being a box...

Bill Murray doesn’t have many regrets about the roles he’s selected, but he is lamenting losing out on a supporting part in a Clint Eastwood film.

Murray said during “The Howard Stern Show” that he turned down an Eastwood feature after starring in 1981’s Army-based “Stripes.” While Murray did not name which Eastwood film he said no to, it seems to be 1986 war drama “Heartbreak Ridge,” in which Eastwood directed and starred in as a U.S. Marine tasked with whipping a platoon into shape. Murray explained that while he would have loved to be a “sidekick” to Eastwood’s lead, he did not want to be typecast as only doing military movies at the time.

“A long time ago, I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,’ or whatever the hell those movies he was making back then. And I thought,...

The 1980s was a heady time that found Bill Murray first experimenting (unsuccessfully) with dramatic acting. After SNL, Caddyshack, Meatballs, and 1981's Stripes launched him into stardom, Murray took a chance with an elevated project of sorts: an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel, The Razor's Edge. The film was a box office bomb, making just half of its budget, and was derided by critics. Murray wouldn't give another dramatic lead performance in years. But there's an alternate timeline in which Murray leads a blockbuster war movie directed by Clint Eastwood in the '80s.

Murray, who can be seen in the new films Riff Raff and The Friend, went on the Howard Stern Show on Siriux Xm and shared the surprising story of his close call with a Clint collaboration. "A long time ago, I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,...

On paper, The Alto Knights looked like a certified mob movie banger. Robert De Niro in two roles? Check. Legendary director Barry Levinson at the helm? Check. Real-life mob drama set in gritty New York? Double check. It had all the makings of a gangster epic that could walk into theaters, collect its box office cash, and strut out like a made man. But instead, it tripped over its own loafers.

Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights (Credits- Warner Bros)

The film barely made a dent in its opening weekend, grossing just $3 million against a whopping $50 million budget. And while Snow White tiptoed in with a soft debut, it still managed to leave The Alto Knights sleeping with the fishes in sixth place. Yikes. So what happened? How did a film with this much pedigree end up getting iced at the box office? Let’s just say there were...

Warner Brothers is seemingly on a never-ending quest of cancelations and removals. After being completed, WB shelved Batgirl. The same goes for Coyote vs. Acme, an animated live-action combining Looney Tuneswith the real world (even though Ketchup Entertainment is now in talks to release it). The entirety of the available Looney Tunes cartoons was recently removed from Max as well. It's clear that the world-renowned film studio is changing gears, now prioritizing movies that can potentially surge at the box office.

There are some big hitters coming up to bat. First, there's F1 starring Brad Pitt and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Then, One Battle After Another with Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. Finally, the Oceans' prequel, which brings in Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as parents to Danny Ocean. Then there's also The Alto Knights, a mob movie where the timeless Robert De Niro plays two characters. Directed by Barry Levinson...

It wasn’t too long ago that Warner Bros. debuted Kevin Costner’s passion project, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1. Ostensibly aimed at older audiences, the movie tanked upon release, which prompted W.B. to remove the already completed sequel from its release calendar. This week’s The Alto Knights appears to be targeting a similar demographic. But it drew a worse response at the box office. Starring Robert De Niro in the dual roles of the mobsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, the crime drama debuted to mediocre reviews and negligible interest at the box office.

The movie made just $3 million in its first weekend of release at the domestic box office, finishing outside the top five, behind even Mickey 17 — another W.B. release that has struggled commercially. The movie made another $1.9 million from overseas markets, for a nearly $5 million global debut. Directed by veteran Barry Levinson, The...

Even two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro starts his mornings with “Ms. Rachel.” Talking to Andy Cohen for Sirius Xm’s Radio Andy, De Niro shared that his two-year-old daughter Gia has “discerning taste” in TV shows, favoring YouTuber Ms. Rachel.

“That’s what I did this morning,” De Niro told Cohen. “‘Ms. Rachel,’ ‘The Wiggles,’ ‘Blippi.’ ‘The Wiggles’ are sort of cheap, but ‘Ms. Rachel,’ we started with it and still stay with it.” According to De Niro, his daughter’s (with girlfriend Tiffany Chen) taste is becoming more refined the more “Ms. Rachel” she watches.

“Now she’s becoming more discerning, because she’s seen it so many times,” De Niro added. “We’re waiting for new episodes, new skits, new songs: she goes ‘Okay, next.’ She’ll go ‘No, no, no, next.’ She wants me to switch to something else.”

Between episodes of “Ms. Rachel” and “The Wiggles,...

Robert De Niro‘s latest movie, “The Alto Knights,” gives the Oscar winner twice as many roles as usual. Directed by Barry Levinson and written by “Goodfellas” writer Nicholas Pileggi, the film charts the real-life power struggle between 1950s Mafia bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello as it spirals into an all-out, blood-on-the-streets conflict. De Niro plays both Genovese and Costello in the drama, which also stars Debra Messing and “Shōgun” breakout Cosmo Jarvis.

De Niro is not the first major actor in Hollywood history to take on the sizable challenge of playing more than one role in a film. Some have even dared to take on more than two In honor of De Niro’s dual turns in “The Alto Knights,” though, here are five other great films that also star actors in two roles.

Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy.” (Entertainment One) Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy”

“Enemy” is director Denis Villeneuve’s surreal,...

Robert De Niro’s returns to the mob movie genre with “The Alto Knights,” and it’s hitting theaters on Friday.

De Niro pulls double duty in the biographical drama, as he stars two of New York’s most notorious crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. The film serves as a 360 moment for De Niro, as Costello was the inspiration behind “The Godfather” character Don Vito Corleone. De Niro starred as the young Vito in “The Godfather Part II.”

The film was written by Nicholas Pileggi (“Goodfellas”) and directed by Barry Levinson. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch below.

When does “The Alto Knights” come out?

“The Alto Knights” comes out Friday, March 21.

Is “The Alto Knights” in theaters?

Yes, “The Alto Knights” will premiere in theaters on Friday, March 21. Check the listings below for showtimes.

AMC Theaters Regal Theaters Cinemark Theaters Landmark Theaters...

Inside you there are two mobsters, and Robert De Niro plays both.

There’s a scene near the limp climax of Barry Levinson’s utterly somnambulant The Alto Knights in which Vito Genovese (De Niro) argues violently with his meathead driver and muscle Vincent Gigante (Cosmo Jarvis) about whether or not Palmyra, NY is the birthplace of Mormonism. Palmyra is the birthplace, but Vito is convinced it isn’t, and he is such a hothead narcissist he nearly strangles Vincent to death. The scene goes on for an obnoxiously long time. There are “jokes” about golden books and a lot of yelling. With no apparent thematic or narrative purpose, the unending scene is an unfortunate metonym for Levinson’s entire enterprise. It is, in other words, a complete waste of time, barely aping properly the mob genre for which it is now sure to be an afterthought.

Loosely, the film...

Mel Blanc was the man of a thousand cartoon voices, developing the distinctive vocal patterns of nearly every classic Looney Tunes character including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Tweety Bird and Marvin the Martian. But when Blanc named his favorite Looney Tune to voice, none of those iconic animations made the cut. That honor, according to MeTV, went to Sylvester the Cat.

Why was Sylvester such a favorite? “He’s a great deal like Daffy: a perpetual fall guy with a near-identical voice,” Blanc explained. “Daffy’s is pitched up slightly, while Sylvester’s is recorded at regular speed and sounds the closest to my natural way of speaking. He’s always been the easiest character for me to play.”

Blanc developed the character’s voice after studying the initial artist renderings of the character. “When I was first shown the model sheet of Sylvester,...

A part of me feels protective of the filmmaking team behind The Alto Knights. For one, Barry Levinson has had a historic and varied career, directing everything from Good Morning, Vietnam to Bugsy and his best collaboration with Robert De Niro, Wag the Dog. This marks his fourth film with the legendary actor, but unfortunately, it is more of a disappointment—much like Sleepers, What Just Happened, and The Wizard of Lies.

Another factor is De Niro’s third collaboration with Nicholas Pileggi, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Goodfellas and Casino (he also executive produced The Irishman). Pileggi lived it. De Niro brings his characters to life. However, many have pointed out that the film is full of crime tropes as if this is the first time it’s happened. I mean, how else do they become them in the first place?

The Alto Knights Review and Synopsis RelatedBlack Bag...

The Alto Knights transports us to mid-century New York, where crime and loyalty take center stage. The film revisits gangster motifs through a historical lens, interspersed with flashbacks that paint a picture of a time when organized crime was reshaping the city. Set in the 1950s, it portrays New York’s criminal underworld with a careful eye on period detail, using its era as a backdrop to explore shifts in power and alliances.

Helmed by Barry Levinson and penned by Nicholas Pileggi, the production carries the weight of established experience in the genre. The film draws from the lives of notable mob figures, loosely based on true events, and reinterprets them with a modern storytelling approach.

Robert De Niro leads the charge, taking on dual roles that highlight contrasting paths within the same criminal tapestry. His work brings forward characters steeped in both tradition and conflict, giving viewers a chance...

There are, by the organization’s current count, some 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild, many of whom are booking gigs on the regular. To be fair, very few of these performers are genuine 1970s cinema icons, not to mention the brand-name embodiment of a whole genre. Robert De Niro is to Mob movies what John Wayne was to Westerns, and though he’s played every type of role imaginable — boxers, bakers, bishops, ballplayers, cops, robbers, revolutionaries, a stitched-together corpse having an existential crisis, even the devil himself — it’s...

If there is one genre that seems to lack quality in recent years, it is the gangster genre. From time to time, an unexpected gem will come along and give fans another gripping drama based in an organized crime setting. However, for the most part, the genre has been much less active since the days of The Sopranos' success on television and Martin Scorsese's The Departed won multiple Academy Awards. While the genre has evolved over the course of cinema history, it was a staple of the movie theater experience for decades, until more recently. A big part of the genre's success was due to some of cinema's greatest auteurs telling stories about the mob. Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma invigorated the genre in the '70s, '80s and '90s. In the 21st century, it feels like only those powerhouse filmmakers can deliver the next classic gangster movie.

The opening of The Alto Knights is wildly disorienting and, frankly, embarrassing. Viewers are placed in gangster Frank Costello's (Robert De Niro) point of view as he's shot, overwhelming the screen with double exposures, aggressive Dutch angles, and rapid cuts between these images and black-and-white flashbacks. It's the kind of thing that sets you on edge for what's to come in the next two hours. Beyond the opening, the first 15 to 20 minutes offer several baffling choices that confuse the narrative and more than that, just what is going on. Costello narrates from the future (that we can't tell at first is the future), sometimes in an office, sometimes in a park, always directly addressing the camera without any framing for this set up....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

From the mind of Award-winning director Barry Levinson and legendary screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas), The Alto Knights is an ambitious attempt to recapture the golden age of mob cinema. With an all-star cast led by Robert De Niro—who takes on the daunting task of portraying both real life Mafia bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese—the film explores the volatile power struggle that reshaped the American crime families in the late 1950s.

Supported by a talented ensemble, including Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) , Katherine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli, this crime saga is rich in historical detail and beautifully layered performances.

The Alto Knights follows Costello and Genovese, once the closest of allies, as they become bitter rivals vying for control of New York’s underworld. The film does a great job of depicting their rise through the ranks, illustrating how friendships in organised crime can be...

There are some good reasons for actors to play multiple roles in a film. If they’re playing twins, for example. Or clones. Or if the film is so outlandish that it feels appropriate, like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove.

But having Robert De Niro play real-life gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese at once simply feels like a casting stunt. The end result is that Barry Levinson’s otherwise sober-minded The Alto Knights too often feels like The Patty Duke Show if Patty and Cathy had become mafiosos.

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. Even its original title, Wise Guys, well, you know. That doesn’t make The Alto Knights (a terrible title, by the way, taken from the name of the social club where the gangsters...

Plot: A personal rivalry between Mafia bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese inadvertently changes the balance of power in the mob forever, revealing to the American public just how vast of a criminal empire it really is.

Review: I understand why The Alto Knights must have been a passion project for everyone involved. Producer Irwin Winkler, star Robert De Niro and writer Nicholas Pileggi are three of the men responsible for the greatest mob movie ever made – Goodfellas -, and it’s fitting that they’d want to be the ones to tell one of the most important Mafia stories of all time. Indeed, Vito Genovese’s attempt to kill Frank Costello kicked off a series of events that eventually led to the testimony of Joseph Valachi, who was the first member of the Mafia to ever acknowledge its existence and popularized the term “Cosa Nostra.”

Whether or not you...

It’s rare to see a film in which not a single interesting thing happens over the course of its entire running time. Not only is that true of Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights,” but this tired-as-hell mafia story — which wouldn’t merit so much as a footnote in the history of mob cinema if not for the gimmick of casting Robert De Niro as real-life crime boss Vito Genovese and his best frenemy Frank Costello — seems totally at peace with it.

From the moment it starts, Levinson’s first theatrical feature since 2015’s “Rock the Kasbah” is comfortably entombed in the same deep sense of resignation that inspires its main character to get out of the game. Frank Costello knows that his era in the underworld has come to a close, and he narrates the limp saga of his own life as if it were already irrelevant. As...

The problem with calling a movie “bad” is that some people, myself included, will only want to see it more. It’s fun to hear about a good movie. It’s boring to hear about a mediocre one. But a film that’s so punishing you can physically feel it? Now that’s fascinating. Truly terrible movies are like the puzzle box from “Hellraiser,” offering pain and pleasure, indivisibly. Only by experiencing both extremes can some lifelong moviegoers truly feel alive.

So let me be absolutely, 100% clear: “The Alto Knights” is indeed a bad movie, but not the good kind. It doesn’t make you feel alive, it makes you feel dead. It’s a tedious, directionless, bumbling chore of a gangster picture, incoherently written and edited, featuring two of the limpest performances of Robert De Niro’s career.

Oh yes, you read that right. De Niro plays two different...

Will “Snow White” be the fairest of them all at the box office?

Disney’s live-action remake of the 1937 animated classic is targeting $45 million to $55 million from 4,200 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Internationally, the film is estimated to collect $50 million for a global start above $100 million. Those ticket sales will easily be enough to lead the domestic box office, which is coming off the worst weekend of 2025 as Paramount’s action comedy “Novocaine” topped charts with just $8.7 million.

Based on projections, “Snow White” won’t reach the initial box office heights of prior Disney live-action remakes, including 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” ($95 million opening weekend), 2016’s “Jungle Book” ($103 million) and a trio of billion-dollar smashes, 2019’s “The Lion King” ($191 million) and “Aladdin” ($91 million), 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($174 million). Instead, “Snow White” is tracking a similar start to 2019’s “Dumbo,” which took off with $45 million, only to stall out at $353 million,...

With Robert De Niro in both lead roles, The Alto Knights dives into the competition for authority between mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. The Alto Knights, directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi, is not only a glimpse into the inner workings of mafia leadership but also reveals the complexities of crime, violence, and loyalty in a world that revolves around mob warfare.

Additional cast members Debra Messing as Frank's wife, Bobbie; Cosmo Jarvis as hired gun Vincent Gigante, and Kathrine Narduci as Anna Genovese help craft a story about two men who went from friends to rivals during the 1950s. De Niro is no stranger to movies about the mafia, with films like The Godfather, The Godfather II, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman all topping the list of some of his greatest performances. The dual role in The Alto Knights is a testament to De...

Organized crime, the mafia, or Cosa Nostra, has been the subject of many of the greatest releases in movie history. Nicholas Pileggi is responsible for writing a few of them, collaborating with legends like Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Martin Scorsese to name a few. Now, with The Alto Knights, Pileggi and De Niro have teamed up with producer Irwin Winkler and director Barry Levinson to put a bow on their long history of telling mob tales.

What is it that makes The Alto Knights a cap to the amazing work these men have done across decades in the genre? In our exclusive interview, Pileggi articulates, "This movie is... the end of that world. And the depiction of these two men fighting it out in the end is what brought the mob to its knees."

De Nero does double duty in The Alto Knights as the two men in question,...

Ever since he directed Robert Redford to one of his richest, most compelling performances in “The Natural,” Barry Levinson has had a knack for bringing out the best in iconic movie stars. Warren Beatty (“Bugsy”), Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, and Michael Douglas and Demi Moore (“Disclosure”), among many others, have done some of their finest work for Levinson in movies that capitalize on their strengths but provide opportunities to deepen and broaden their personas.

Even in this company, the relationship between Levinson and Robert De Niro is special. Since they first worked together on “Sleepers” in 1996, Levinson and De Niro have created a series of indelible characters, from the spin doctor of “Wag the Dog” and the beleaguered producer of “What Just Happened?” to real-life fraudster Bernie Madoff in “The Wizard of Lies.” These were all just a warm-up, however, for Levinson and De Niro’s latest collaboration “The Alto Knights...

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This March, we are getting a ton of entertainment on various platforms, including streaming services, television networks, and, last but not least, theatres. This upcoming month, we will finally see the release of the extremely controversial Disney film Snow White and the movie I am looking for is Bong Joon-ho‘s Mickey 17. So, we are here to sort out all of the brilliant upcoming movies that you might not want to miss seeing in theatres.

Mickey 17 (March 7) Credit – Warner Bros. Pictures

Mickey 17 is an upcoming sci-fi dark comedy adventure film written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the 2025 film is set in the distant future, and it follows Mickey Barnes, a disposable employee who can be regenerated with most of his memories still intact, who is sent on...

Manoeuvre.Like religion, the military is a consistent presence in the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, which have charted a staggering range of institutions and communities in a distinct observational mode. His continual interest in this subject across six decades of films is also an acknowledgement of the military’s constant influence on American life, either overtly or as the elephant in the room. Wiseman had been drafted into the Army himself and served for 21 months in the immediate wake of the Korean War. One of his earliest films, Basic Training (1971), documents the first nine weeks in the service for a company of men at Fort Knox. Even before Basic Training, High School (1968) concludes with the reading of a letter from a former student about to be deployed to Vietnam, addressing the graduating class. In the late 1970s, after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Wiseman took a concentrated look at...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, read the Bait: a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film. Then, try the Bite: a breakdown of the movie’s ending, impact, and any other spoilers you’d want.

The Bait: A Lynchian Language Barrier and a Break from Sadness

To steal from a popular meme this week, January has been the longest year of the month.

With Los Angeles still burning in the background, David Lynch died a few weeks ago — from complications of emphysema at 78 — and Hollywood went into sudden and deep mourning. Even against a steady stream of more bad news, tributes to the late filmmaker are still going strong.

From “Eraserhead” to “Inland Empire,” the beloved director was a quintessential and divisive voice of midnight movie culture, one whose surreal embrace of...

Quick Links What Is Alto Knights About? Who Is Writing and Directing Alto Knights? Who is Starring in Alto Knights? When Will Alto Knights Hit Theaters? Alto Knights' Trailer Hints at an Intense Gangster Movie

In Robert De Niro's upcoming Alto Knights, the legendary actor is coming back to his mafia movies comfort zone, but with a catch: he's set to play not only one gangster but two. De Niro is going back to his crime genre roots with an incredible team backing him, including veteran film director Barry Levinson. On March 21, Robert De Niro will bring two legendary crime figures to life: Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.

Formerly titled Wise Guys, Alto Knights has been rechristened after a series of difficult test screenings resulted in a few changes to the film itself. That's not exactly a great sign, and considering the turbulent quality of most of Robert De Niro's recent filmography,...

Throughout the 50 seasons of Saturday Night Live, several music acts have been reported to be banned from ever appearing again following controversial performances on the iconic sketch-comedy show. However, SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels insists that SNL has “never banned anyone” in its half-century history.

Michaels’ revelation comes courtesy of the new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which premiered Monday night (January 27th) on NBC and is now streaming on Peacock.

“I’ll read it sometimes in the Post, ‘So and so’s banned for life,’” says Michaels in the doc. “We’ve never banned anyone. We’re way too crass and opportunistic. If something’s hot, we’re going to go for it and have it on.”

For decades, it’s been assumed that music acts like Sinéad O’Connor, Rage Against the Machine, Fear, Elvis Costello, and even the legendary David Bowie were banned from ever playing Saturday Night Live again.

Kenan Thompson has carved quite a comedy career for himself, having started on Nickelodeon’s All That to being one of Saturday Night Live‘s most seasoned cast members. As he grew up in the 90s, he starred on Kenan & Kel as a teen and started to venture into movies. Meanwhile, around the same time, Anthony Anderson, who is quite a veteran of many TV and film projects himself, starred in the Saturday morning teen sitcom Hang Time on NBC. Thompson would reveal that when he auditioned for roles in that era, one name that constantly followed him around was Anderson’s.

People Magazine spoke with Kenan Thompson on the podcast, People in the ‘90s, where he explained, “Anthony Anderson, I would always see his name on the list. Whether I would see him at the actual audition or not, he was always in the running.” Thompson added, “We’ve...

Questlove can still remember seeing Billy Preston perform on the first Saturday Night Live on Oct. 11, 1975. Technically, he wasn’t allowed to watch TV, but his parents were Soul Train devotees who wanted their son, then four, to absorb “anything musical,” he says. To get him ready for its 1 a.m. start time, they’d wake him up at 12:30… as Lorne Michaels’ brand-new sketch show was airing. “Back then, Weekend Update was a two-part thing, and then the musical guest would do two songs after, and then [again] right before 1 a.

Another project means another chance for Keke Palmer to showcase her fashion prowess.

Ahead of the Friday release of her female buddy comedy film, One of Them Days, which also stars Sza, Keke Palmer has been wowing the crowd with her stylish selections, which include colorful winter coats, vibrant dresses, edgy pairings, and timeless footwear. All of which reflect her lively personality and confidence.

Along with her stylist Zoe Costello, Palmer combed through a wide range of clothing collections, from the archives of houses like Dolce & Gabbana and Dior to the latest offerings from Schiaparelli and Vivienne Westwood, skillfully fusing elegance with a dash of her signature edge.

Keke Palmer promotes One of Them Days in a mix of archival and modern ensembles from designers like John Galliano, Schiaparelli, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, and Vivienne Westwood (Credit: Roger Wong / INSTARimages / TheStewartOfNY)

Her shoe choices weren’t as eye-catching as her clothes,...

As Rick and Ilsa taught us all too well on that fateful runway, there are few things more powerful than a heartfelt farewell. To provoke applause from the audience -- or, better yet, that stunned and contemplative silence as they watch the credits still submerged in the final moments of a story well told -- it is critical that a film nail its ending.

Whether through the unveiling of some mind-blowing twist, a sudden insight that changes the way you see the story, or a simple but powerfully human moment earned between two characters, the last sequence of a movie has the capacity to shape your understanding of all that came before -- in and out of the theater. As such, we've taken great care in compiling some of our favorite movie endings of all time, ranking them based on quality, impact, and cultural staying power.

Read more: 13 Times Film...

50 Most Anticipated Movies of 2025

From Danny Boyle’s haunting return to the 28 Days Later saga to Guillermo del Toro’s visionary Frankenstein. From Wes Anderson exploring espionage in The Phoenician Scheme to Yorgos Lanthimos tackling alien conspiracies in Bugonia. From Ari Aster’s Eddington, which takes a sinister comedic turn, to Paul Thomas Anderson adding intrigue with The Battle of Baktan Cross, while Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon highlights the struggles of Broadway composer Lorenz Hart, featuring Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley. Exciting casting choices include Cate Blanchett in Jim Jarmusch’s Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, and Brad Pitt returning to the racetrack in Joseph Kosinski’s F1.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the most anticipated films of the year!

1. 28 Years Later | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Cillian Murphy, Ralph Fiennes

Genre: Horror, Thriller Release Date: June 20, 2025 (United States)

A group of survivors of the...