Movie reviews: THE ALTO KNIGHTS, THE ASSESSMENT, ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL 

• Warner Bros. Pictures
• The Alto Knights

The Alto Knights
All actors want a challenge, so maybe it sounded interesting in theory to Robert De Niro to attempt a variation on GoodFellas where he played both his character and Joe Pesci's character. He's back working with writer Nicholas Pileggi in a biographical drama about 1950s New York gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese (both played by De Niro), childhood friends who come into conflict when Genovese returns from exile overseas after the war and expects to get control of his criminal empire back from Costello. Director Barry Levinson tries to give the proceedings a little pop and sizzle in his flashbacks and montages, but those moments are heavily outweighed by stretches that seem to last forever, including several courtroom scenes and the climactic mob meeting that gobbles up most of the last half-hour. But a huge part of anyone's experience with this story is going to depend on rolling with the double De Niro casting, and it just never really works. It's not that De Niro isn't capable of creating distinctive personalities for Costello and Genovese, because they're unique individuals beneath all the prosthetics. Those individuals are simply characters we've seen before in this kind of movie, to the point where it feels like they're imitations of other cinematic mobsters. If you want to see a movie where a hot-headed criminal gets homicidal over a seemingly mundane comment, I've got a much better recommendation for you. Available March 21 in theaters. (R)

• Magnolia Films
• The Assessment

The Assessment
One wonderful thing about this job is being able to discover a movie without any sense for where its premise might go, as happened with this funky science-fiction psychodrama, and one of its lead performances. In a near-future where environmental collapse has led to a tightly-controlled, dome-protected society, couples like scientists Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) must apply for the privilege of being allowed to procreate, and submit to a week-long observation by "assessor" Virginia (Alicia Vikander) who gets to make that call. Saying more would deprive you of some of the joy of discovery, particularly as Vikander's character goes sideways at about the 25-minute mark in a way that immediately made me giddy with the possibilities. What follows has the bare bones of a thriller, but ultimately addresses plenty of the anxieties confronting prospective parents: how their lives might be disrupted; worries about turning into the worst version of one's own parents; the realization that your partner might be better at it than you are. It's kind of a bummer that director Fleur Fortuné and the screenwriting team expand their allegory in far less interesting directions, resulting in a third act that's not nearly as effective as the previous two. But for those two acts, it's hard not to wonder whether the experience Mia and Aaryan go through is one no parent-to-be should have to endure, or one every parent-to-be should have to endure. Available March 21 in theaters. (R)

• A24 Films
• On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Sometimes, seeing an idea presented in a different cultural context can really bring it to life—and while Rungano Nyoni's Zambian drama ultimately literalizes its metaphor a bit too obviously, it's still an effective story of when cultural priorities seem desperately askew. This one finds a young woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) discovering the body of her Uncle Fred in the road, setting in motion elaborate mourning rituals that seem determined to ignore that Fred was a serial sexual predator. Nyoni introduces some striking visuals to heighten the potentially grim story, from the fancy-dress costume Shula wears at the outset, to nightmare sequences, to framing Shula in one key moment so only half of her body is visible. The center of the narrative, however, is the process that focuses all attention on the deceased, with the women in the family responsible for serving the men and being judged severely based on how well they fulfill that function. It's not exactly subtle, including the significance of the movie's title, yet it still strikes at something more universal about how death is somehow expected to erase the legacy of monsters, and how it can come to pass that the people who are supposed to protect you can be too afraid and/or ashamed to fully stare in the face the harm that they allowed to happen. Available March 21 in theaters. (PG-13)