The Alto Knights (2025) * * *

Directed by:  Barry Levinson

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli

Robert De Niro has played so criminals in his career that he could be an honorary mob member.  I've never seen him play two mob bosses in the same movie, though, and The Alto Knights gives him an opportunity to relish in playing both reasonable boss Frank Costello and hot-headed Vito Genovese.  They're done seamlessly and allows the audience to enjoy The Alto Knights, directed by Wag the Dog's Barry Levinson.  It is a mob movie, with violence, hits, and feuds, but it feels different in its atmosphere.  

Frank and Vito were lifelong friends who grew up in the New York mob together.  Vito controlled a portion of Carlo Gambino's family, and bequeathed it to Frank when he was forced to flee the country.  When Vito returns over a decade later, Frank is unwilling to relinquish power, mostly because he was able to stabilize the normally violent elements of the streets.  This begins the tension between Frank and Vito, which culminates in Vito putting out an unsuccessful hit on Frank which takes place in the film's opening scenes. 

Frank is cool and intelligent, using brains instead of muscle.  Vito is stubborn and unpredictable, which is reflected in his marriage and later divorce to his equally stubborn wife Anna (Narducci).   Frank is married to the supportive and steady Bobbie (Messing) and has been for years.  Their home lives are in direct contrast and it spills out into their public ones.  All of this is moved along steadily and assuredly by Levinson, who took on the inner workings of the mob in Bugsy (1991), the story of another wild card, mobster Bugsy Siegel, who founded Las Vegas but never lived to see it flourish.  

Levinson brings a special energy to The Alto Knights, which works most of the time, while occasionally lapsing into near self-parody.  However, it is amusing and gripping to see Frank stay one step ahead of those trying to bring him down; those who think he's a soft touch when in reality, he truly was able to run the mob like a business.  He's as close to a hero as you'll find in this world.  

Reacher: Season Three (2025) * * * 1/2 (streaming on Amazon Prime)

 

Starring:  Alan Ritchson, Sonya Cassidy, Maria Sten, Anthony Michael Hall, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Olivier Richters

Reacher's season three is the first season in which Reacher (Ritchson) doesn't have all the answers and isn't the biggest or the baddest dude on the block.  It's refreshing to see Reacher sweat, something we didn't see in the first two seasons.  This is the first season which maintains our interest throughout, and the villains are thoroughly scary.  Granted, the concluding, inevitable fight between Reacher and the towering bodyguard Pauli (Richters) continues long past either person would be able to remain conscious, but we were waiting for it and it delivered. 

In the beginning of season three, Reacher is passing through a small New England town when he sees a young man named Richard (Berchtold) being kidnapped.  Reacher thwarts the crime and drives the scared kid home to his grateful father Zachary (Hall), who offers Reacher a job as his bodyguard after a thorough background search.   Zachary lives in a lush mansion with plenty of acreage, and is said to be a carpet dealer, but we soon learn he also deals in guns under the thumb of the vicious Quinn (Tee).  Reacher has a past with Quinn and assumed he killed him years ago, but this isn't the case.  Reacher seeks vengeance against Quinn while trying to assist DEA agent Susan Duffy (Cassidy) in finding her informant who was kidnapped by Quinn.  

How season three differs from previous Reacher seasons is how we sense Reacher is in danger and not always in control.  Ritchson's season three Reacher is vulnerable and more human than the previous seasons' iterations.  The human stakes are higher this season than in previous ones.  Anthony Michael Hall also gives us multi-faceted dimensions as a gun runner who is also a loving father.  He's someone we can sympathize with to an extent, while the villains are cold, nasty, and unsympathetic.   This is the best season of Reacher by far.  Now that we know how well it can done, I hope season four builds on it.