The Top 10 Garbage Scorsese Movies and ‘The Alto Knights’

The news: trailers and a Warner Bros. schedule shufflethe PTA teaser, and everyone moving off August 8th

One Battle After Another 2025

Paul Thomas Anderson's loose Vineland adaptation, moved off August 8th to September 26th (staying on the 2025 calendar), with a teaser dropping a day later. The hosts clocked Leonardo DiCaprio, a pregnant Teyonah Taylor firing a rifle, Sean Penn's voice, and Chase Infiniti; Sean says he's watched it 42 times. A likely fall-festival play, though the hosts note PTA has often held films back (Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza) and wonder if Warner Bros. is gun-shy after the Joker sequel's Venice premiere.

Weapons 2025

Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian, described as a horror-movie version of Magnolia (a multi-character arc), moved up into the vacated August 8th slot.

Materialists 2025

Celine Song's romance with Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, out June 13. A matchmaker falls for two men; Broadcast News is cited as the signal inspiration.

F1 2025

Joseph Kosinski's Brad Pitt racing movie. Sean is in the 'show me the movie' zone, wary of the rote framework and the 'I'm too old for this' beats, but trusting Kosinski's action.

Together 2025

The Alison Brie / Dave Franco high-concept horror that was a Sundance sensation. Sean won't spoil past the logline.

The Phoenician Scheme 2025

Wes Anderson's spy film, out in July. Michael Cera finally joins the troupe; Benicio del Toro and Scarlett Johansson are said to be aboard.

The Bride! 2026

Maggie Gyllenhaal's musical take on the Bride of Frankenstein, pushed to 2026 after testing reportedly went badly.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974

The 1974 original, back in the news: Strange Darling's J.T. Mollner and Glen Powell are said to be in pole position on a reboot, Powell producing and starring. Sean is dubious about Chainsaw as IP; Chris can't wait.

‘The Alto Knights’Barry Levinson · De Niro times two · a movie that could have been an email

The Alto Knights 2025

Barry Levinson's mob movie, written by Goodfellas scribe Nicholas Pileggi, with Robert De Niro in a dual role as 1950s bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello (a De Niro-driven choice that started life as a Costello solo piece). Also features Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis as Vinny 'The Chin' Gigante, Catherine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli as Albert Anastasia. Everyone was bored: Amanda unbelievably so, Chris despite loving the subject. Reads like Netflix true-crime: direct-to-camera exposition, archival photos, voiceover, covering ground Godfather II, Goodfellas, and The Irishman already owned. Credit to Dante Spinotti's warm photography and a near-photoreal makeup job. The hosts frame it as closing business at the end of a run: Levinson is 82, De Niro and Spinotti in their 80s, Pileggi in his 90s.

Goodfellas 1990

The source text hanging over everything: Pileggi wrote it, and Alto Knights fills the parts it skipped.

Casino 1995

Costello is 'Ace Rothstein without Vegas,' per Sean, the diplomat operator.

The Irishman 2019

The signature old-man mafia movie and the melancholy comparison: The Irishman asked whether it was all worth it; Alto Knights just does the thing again.

Bugsy 1991

Levinson's closest sibling film: Oscar-nominated, all the parts in place, and to Sean a juiceless slog, much like this one.

The Godfather Part II 1974

Dramatized the Kefauver hearings first; Don Barzini and the Vito Corleone character draw on Genovese and Costello. 'We got it,' the hosts say.

Manhunter 1986

Offered as proof of Spinotti's pedigree behind the camera.

Diner 1982

The early Levinson mode, talky, character-first Baltimore dramedy, before a long mid-to-downfall stretch.

Rain Man 1988

Levinson's Hollywood peak, another talky character piece.

The Top 10 Garbage Scorsese Moviesloving knockoffs that take the style but not the soul

Magazine Dreams 2025

Elijah Bynum's Jonathan Majors bodybuilder drama, finally released: 'what if Taxi Driver but a bodybuilder.' Sean's example that garbage Scorsese isn't only mob; it's the self-loathing, the doomed loner, the tonality.

The Bikeriders 2024

The final 10, and the most recent pick. Jeff Nichols builds a Goodfellas-on-bikes out of a photo book: needle drops, detached narration, a man pulled between his domestic and criminal lives. Chris means the comparison as a compliment.

Hustlers 2019

The final 10. New York strippers running a scam, an after-the-fact interview framing device (Julia Stiles as journalist Jessica Pressler) standing in for narration, needle drops, some righteousness on their side.

Hot Summer Nights 2018

The final 10. Elijah Bynum's Cape Cod drug-dealing coming-of-age with an early Timothée Chalamet: 'first-half Goodfellas.' Sean and Chris walked out of the South by Southwest premiere uneasy at how much of their taste was in it; Sean doesn't think it's good, but it's the platonic garbage Scorsese: snap zooms, tracking shots, bad narration, a rooting-interest dirtbag.

American Hustle 2013

The final 10, 'emphasis on the garbagey.' David O. Russell doing '80s Scorsese energy: big cocaine, wall-to-wall voiceover stitching a fractured script. Amanda dislikes it but stands by Amy Adams.

American Gangster 2007

The final 10, and the affectionate one. Ridley Scott's Frank Lucas movie (Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe circling each other) that everyone hoped would be Scott's Scorsese and turned out to be the garbage version. Josh Brolin's dirty cop is the highlight.

Alpha Dog 2006

The final 10. Nick Cassavetes' true-crime kidnapping drama, an early Justin Timberlake, plus Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis, Amanda Seyfried. High energy that falls apart; Sean remembers being baffled by the hype.

Blow 2001

The final 10. Ted Demme's Johnny Depp drug-trafficker saga: 'the most like Gimme Shelter needle-drop rip-off attempt.' Beloved by people who saw it at nine; not good, Sean insists.

Donnie Brasco 1997

The final 10, a big one from the '90s boom. Mike Newell, the Brit from Four Weddings and a Funeral, directing Depp and Pacino undercover.

Amongst Friends 1993

The final 10, and Sean's deep cut. Rob Weiss's Long Island crime movie about privileged kids drawn into a bookie grandfather's world: a baseball coach called it the best movie since Goodfellas. One mutual on Letterboxd (Dave Weigel) has logged it, at one star.

Laws of Gravity 1992

The final 10, a Chris Ryan classic. Nick Gomez's $50,000 Brooklyn crime debut with a young Edie Falco and Peter Greene; Gomez later made New Jersey Drive and directed Homicide: Life on the Street.

Casino 1995

The most honorable mention. Sean thinks it should have made the 10. Also the meta case: it's Scorsese doing garbage Scorsese, dismissed as 'this again?' on release.

You Were Never Really Here 2017

Lynne Ramsay's Taxi Driver variation: 'what if the overhead slow-mo shot in Taxi Driver was an entire film.' Joaquin Phoenix as an avenging assassin; the Paul Schrader side of Scorsese rather than the frenetic one.

Observe and Report 2009

Chris's where-does-Marty-end pick. Jody Hill's mall-cop movie fusing crime Scorsese with the deluded-clown King of Comedy Scorsese; Seth Rogen, plus a very funny Anna Faris.

Blood Ties 2013

Guillaume Canet's 1974-set film, co-written by James Gray: 'the neighborhood over from Mean Streets,' with Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, and a stacked '70s soundtrack (Lee Moses's 'Bad Girl').

Good Time 2017

The Safdies. Chris throws it out not as garbage but as the good version, the kinetic energy of Mean Streets done right.

War Dogs 2016

Todd Phillips' arms-dealer movie: all the pieces (a great Bradley Cooper), but the motivation is 'Miles Teller's baby needs a crib,' not Harvey Keitel's tortured soul. Style without theme.

The Good Shepherd 2006

One of only two films De Niro directed (with A Bronx Tale). Eric Roth's entirely invented CIA history: the fictional man walking through every era of the agency.

A Bronx Tale 1993

De Niro's directorial debut; qualifies as garbage Scorsese, though it's De Niro himself doing it.

Smokin' Aces 2006

Joe Carnahan's overstuffed hitman ensemble: Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys as a sniper.

Running Scared 2006

The Paul Walker version, with Vera Farmiga, a genuinely cool one on Sean's long list.

The Way of the Gun 2000

Christopher McQuarrie's directorial debut after The Usual Suspects: Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro, half Scorsese and half Tarantino.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Scorsese's own films, the measuring stick Taxi DriverRaging BullThe King of ComedyMean StreetsThe DepartedThe Wolf of Wall StreetKillers of the Flower MoonSilenceThe Age of InnocenceLittle WomenNew York, New YorkThe Godfather

'80s films in the lineage (good, not garbage) ScarfaceThe Pope of Greenwich VillagePrizzi's HonorYear of the DragonMona LisaWall StreetPlatoonMarried to the MobBlack RainThe NaturalTin MenGood Morning, Vietnam

Where Scorsese blurs into Tarantino Reservoir DogsPulp FictionThings to Do in Denver When You're DeadLock, Stock and Two Smoking BarrelsSnatchThe Usual SuspectsJoker

Also floated for the list ClockersNew Jersey DriveGet ShortyHard EightBoundSuicide KingsBoogie NightsThe DropGimme Shelter

In passing HeatNo Country for Old MenFour Weddings and a FuneralNotting HillBarbarianStrange DarlingBroadcast NewsThe Philadelphia StoryHard BoiledTwistersHit ManThe Running ManPaper TownsWolfsSpiderheadTop Gun: MaverickMickey 17AnoraSnow WhiteMoana 2Roman HolidayR.I.P.D.

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Presumed InnocentAndorZero DaySeveranceThe StudioThe SopranosHomicide: Life on the StreetThe PitDope ThiefAdolescenceTop ChefYo! MTV Raps

Books VinelandWise GuyThe WagerThe Devil in the White CityAnna Karenina

Podcasts The WatchThe Rewatchables

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