Robert De Niro is brilliant playing a dual role in what would be a fitting farewell to mobster movies

If The Alto Knights is the last time Robert De Niro plays a mobster, it would be a fitting farewell to a genre he has dominated for decades, writes Leigh Paatsch.

With Robert De Niro pulling double duty in a solid crime drama and a surprise Oscar-winning animation, it’s worth a trip to the movies this week.

THE ALTO KNIGHTS (MA15+)

Robert De Niro is in familiar gangster territory in The Alto Knights.

Director: Barry Levinson (Rain Man)

Starring: Robert De Niro, Michael Rispoli, Debra Messing

★★★

Your first and last chance to buy a two-Bob watch

With Robert De Niro now aged in his early 80s, it is not unfair to say that there will be few opportunities in coming years to see this decorated actor in movies that befit his reputation.

In particular, for over five decades, De Niro’s true specialty has been crafting richly authentic characters who prowl the criminal underworld with authority, aggression and abandon.

Therefore it is likely this week’s release of The Alto Knights marks our last chance to see Robert De Niro in such circumstances.

Those of us who have marvelled at De Niro in his gangster prime will be further encouraged to check out his new work once we learn it has been scripted by the great Nicholas Pileggi, the same screenwriter responsible for the Scorsese-De Niro classics Goodfellas and Casino.

Anyone else who needs the slightest of nudges to attend should be aware The Alto Knights will be delivering viewers two De Niros for the price of one.

In telling this fascinating true story of the fateful clash of wills between two notorious figures in the annals of Italian-American organised crime, director Barry Levinson has cast De Niro in both lead roles.

The veteran star steps up to this demanding double-duty task with aplomb. While the movie itself doesn’t always rise to the occasion, ol’ Bob keeps up his end of the bargain throughout. And that’s all that truly matters here.

Robert De Niro plays two roles in The Alto Knights.

The movie is set primarily in the late 1950s, tracking a fateful fallout between two lifelong frenemies, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello (both played by De Niro).

As the story begins, Genovese has torn up the Mafia rule book and ordered a hit on Costello, a respected “boss of bosses” who oversees mob operations across the US.

Genovese’s beef with his former colleague is that Costello’s job should rightfully be his. However, despite taking a bullet to the head at close range, Costello survives the Genovese ambush and continues to call the shots for all crooks across New York City and beyond.

Naturally, this just makes Genovese madder than ever, triggering a bloody turf war for control of the American Mafia, ultimately pushing that once-powerful institution to the brink of self-destruction.

Both as an elaborate period piece and a fitting showcase for De Niro’s supreme control as an actor, The Alto Knights pays its way as a movie.

Serious gangster-flick devotees will note an emphasis on the internal machinations of the Mafia, which curiously means this production has more in common with a Conclave than a Goodfellas.

The Alto Knights is now showing in general release

THE ELECTRIC STATE (M)

Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in the overpriced and underwhelming sci-fi adventure The Electric State. Picture: Paul Abell/Netflix

★½

Now streaming on Netflix

Feel like finding out a couple of fun facts about The Electric State? Here you go then. Since premiering last Friday on Netflix, it has been the most-streamed movie of the year on a per-day basis. This retro-futuristic adventure flick starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt also just happens to be one of the most expensive stand-alone productions in Hollywood history, with its final budget coming in at a bewildering $AU500 million.

Now here’s a un-fun fact for you. The Electric State is one of the worst movies to be rolled out this year – a two-bit Transformers-ish debacle that crumples and shreds a decent cast (Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt and Woody Harrelson) and a popular source text (author Simon Stalenhag’s influential graphic novel) into the screen equivalent of scrap metal.

The monster budget certainly does guarantee some stunning visual flourishes on occasion, but surely all that money would also have bought all the rewrites necessary to make this messy yarn vaguely possible to follow?

FLOW (G)

The delightful Flow was a surprise Best Animated Feature Oscar winner at this year’s Academy Awards.

★★★★

Selected cinemas

This is the unheralded movie that caused one of the few legitimate upsets at the recent Academy Awards, landing a surprise Best Animated Feature Oscar win at the expense of the box-office blockbusters The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2. Let no one argue the victory was in any way unwarranted, and this beautifully illustrated and scripted affair is all class from start to finish.

Unfolding without any dialogue whatsoever, Flow modestly tracks the movements of five animals who have survived a global catastrophe that has purged all humans from the face of the planet. The unofficial leader of this questing quintet (which includes a capybara and a golden retriever) is a small black cat with big round eyes. After clambering aboard a drifting sailboat, this fearless feline and her friends embark on an odyssey that just might teach them the skills to survive in this dauntingly empty new world. However, with so many other creatures from across the whole of nature figuring out where they now fit in, staying alive while starting anew is going to be a difficult task.

This is a captivating piece of work that will probably find the wider audience it deserves once it hits the streaming platforms.

Originally published as Robert De Niro is brilliant playing a dual role in what would be a fitting farewell to mobster movies