Costello

There’s a catch, a gimmick even, as De Niro stars opposite himself, playing both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, two notorious real-life Italian American mafiosi who have inspired many movies and documentaries.

It’s a reminder that De Niro’s presence — as an actor and signifier of the gangster movie — looms so large that only he could play the iconic roles of Costello and Genovese.

In De Niro’s take on Genovese, sparkier and more impulsive than Costello, it almost seems like he’s doing an imitation of Joe Pesci, his co-star in “Goodfellas,” “Casino” and “The Irishman.”

To try and synopsize the various trials and tribulations of the Genovese crime family during the first half of the 20th century would be a fool’s errand, and both Levinson and Pileggi recognize that, focusing on a few key events in the story of the longtime relationship between Costello and Genovese — namely, the latter’s botched hit on the former in 1957 — while glossing over most of their backstory in rapid-fire montage.

The plot is told nonlinearly and with a larger narrative framing device in which De Niro as an elderly Costello delivers a documentary-style talking head interview to an unseen interviewer, which serves as the voiceover for the film.