Documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher makes his characteristic movie debut with Tuner, a pitch-perfect heist thriller that fairly actually hits all the fitting notes. Leo Woodall stars as Niki, a former piano prodigy who now spends his time tuning pianos because the apprentice of Dustin Hoffman’s Harry Horowitz.
They spend their days engaged on devices which are used, at finest, annually, however Niki has a singular reward in that he can determine any word simply by listening to it. That is implied to be a results of his listening to incapacity — to him, sound is ache, and he should put on ear plugs day-after-day and noise-cancelling headphones in significantly loud environments.
In a genius twist (in a script filled with intelligent turns), this additionally makes Niki the right secure cracker, and he’s finally drawn right into a shady world of thieves who use their cowl as safety guards to rob wealthy purchasers.
Tuner Is Firing On All Cylinders
Roher co-wrote the sharp script with Robert Ramsay and constructed into this story is a brilliantly constructed and luxurious sonic world with a jazzy rating courtesy of Will Bates. Tuner makes you are feeling Niki’s ache, the world round him a minefield of potential damage punctuated by good sound design. The story makes use of sound to intelligent ends — there’s one scene with an airhorn that feels significantly merciless.
However beneath all this can be a slyly emotional story that sneaks up on you. The daddy-son dynamic between Niki and Harry is supported by the fantastic chemistry of Woodall and Hoffman. Harry’s spouse Marla (an all the time heat Tovah Feldshuh) can be a key determine within the movie, however the centerpiece relationship is that between Niki and Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu in her finest position so far), a younger piano pupil who’s on her strategy to reaching every thing Niki could not.
When he developed his aversion to sound at a younger age, Niki was compelled to surrender enjoying the piano, although it is one thing he is been working in direction of once more day-after-day, combating emotional and bodily blocks to do what he loves as soon as once more. Tuner’s layered script packs all of this and extra into its snappy runtime.
Woodall anchors Tuner with a cleverly muted efficiency that slowly blossoms into one thing extra emotionally open, particularly as his reference to Ruthie grows. In The White Lotus, the British actor was horny and slippery, however Tuner sees him tapping right into a softer aspect, sharp-tongued, however by no means bitter, coy smiles which are heat reasonably than overtly seductive.
Even in its harrowing moments (of which there are a couple of), Tuner by no means sensationalizes its heist plot, choosing a practical method to a narrative that’s already so grounded within the on a regular basis lives of those folks. We see Niki tune extra pianos than we do unlock safes, and although he appears to be going by the motions, there is a humanity to the way in which Tuner treats Niki’s life, which on the floor seems rote, however is reasonably complicated because the story expands.
As Tuner races in direction of its good crescendo, all aspects of its story collide in shocking methods, Niki’s relationships with everybody round him being pulled deep into the net of dishonesty he inadvertently weaves. Regardless of his good intentions, Niki runs the danger of ruining every thing and everybody round him and although the stakes are admittedly small, they do not actually really feel that manner.
Roher’s route provides the movie an intimate perspective, however the aforementioned sonic world the movie builds expands the scope in sly methods. We go out and in of Niki’s viewpoint on how he hears the world round him, sure scenes muffled and others ringing with the sonic energy of a searing migraine. The lens blurs as Niki’s world does, and we’re in it with him each step of the way in which.
Within the movie’s last moments, there’s a fantastic sonic catharsis, and you will be hard-pressed to not depart the theater with a smile in your face. Tuner is a small movie, however one that can depart a big effect. It really is likely one of the most pleasant surprises of the autumn and deserves to be seen on an enormous display with the loudest sound doable. This is hoping it will get that probability.
Tuner screened on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant.
Tuner
9/10
- Launch Date
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August 30, 2025
- Runtime
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109 minutes
- Director
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Daniel Roher
- Writers
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Robert Ramsey
- Producers
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Andrew Golov, JoAnne Sellar, Lila Yacoub, Mary Anne Waterhouse, Noah Segal, Christina Piovesan, Teddy Schwarzman, John Friedberg