{"id":14517,"date":"2026-05-30T16:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14517"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:43:12","slug":"tuner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/05\/30\/tuner\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Tuner<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Black Bear\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, some violence, drug use, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Daniel Roher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Will Bates\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Lowell A. Meyer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno, Dustin Hoffman, Nissan Sakira, Gil Cohen, C.S. Lee.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Do you know what pains me the most about a great indie movie like Tuner<\/strong>? I\u2019ll tell you what. It\u2019s almost certain to get lost in the shuffle of high-profile summer movies coming out in the next few weeks. It probably won\u2019t even get a proper release. It\u2019ll play in a handful of theaters for maybe a week or two before making way for some major studio blockbuster. It makes me sad to think audiences will miss out on a superior crime drama that favors story and character over spectacle and character types.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tuner<\/strong> is the first non-doc from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher (Navalny) and it is pitch perfect. Leo Woodall (Nuremberg), in a star-making performance, plays the title character, a piano tuner named Niki. He suffers from an auditory affliction called hyperacusis which makes everyday sounds painfully loud. Once a promising piano prodigy, he now wears ear plugs and sometimes headphones to deal with the noise of New York life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Niki leads an uneventful life tuning pianos for wealthy people while his boss and mentor Harry (Hoffman, Rain Man) talks about the old days. While working late one night, he happens on a gang of thieves trying unsuccessfully to crack a safe in an upstairs bedroom. He asks them to keep it down. The boss Uri (Raz, Gladiator II) challenges Niki to get into the safe. With his heightened hearing, he can hear the tumblers inside. It\u2019s a talent he didn\u2019t know he had until now. Uri pays him generously and offers him a job.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Harry suffers a health crisis and his wife Marla (Feldshuh, The Walking Dead) has no way of paying the mounting hospital bills. Niki calls Uri and accepts his offer. Of course, he can\u2019t tell anybody what\u2019s he\u2019s doing on the side, not even his new girlfriend Ruthie (Liu, Bottoms), a gifted piano student who dreams of being a composer. She and Niki meet when he\u2019s called to tune her instrument for a big show. Annoyed at first, she becomes intrigued when she discovers he has perfect pitch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tuner<\/strong> is a compelling crime drama highlighted by fully developed characters and an offbeat sensibility. Although he\u2019s only in it for a total of maybe 20 minutes (unconscious in a hospital bed for a lot of it), Hoffman leaves an indelible impression as Harry, an old rascal with a lot to say. Much of his dialogue, like all that business about tuna fish, is improvised. The 88YO actor is a national treasure; it\u2019s always great to see him act. He brings so much to every movie he\u2019s in (yes, even Ishtar!) even if it is in small doses.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Woodall is one of those \u201cone to watch\u201d actors. The Brit actor isn\u2019t well known yet, but I have a feeling he will be soon. What he does in Tuner<\/strong> is simply amazing. He conveys complete confidence as a young guy just trying to make it through life despite a disadvantage that makes it extremely difficult to navigate a noisy place like NYC. The desperation that makes him turn to a life of crime is palpable. He\u2019s basically a decent person forced to do wrong to do right. The circumstances are totally believable; we all know the cost of medical care is outrageous. It makes you wonder who the real bad guys are in Tuner<\/strong>. Is it Uri and his gang or the unfeeling hospital charging an arm and a leg? It\u2019s definitely debatable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Liu does a fine job as Ruthie, an aspiring composer prepping for a performance that could land her an internship with a famous maestro (Reno, Leon the Professional). She has great chemistry with both Woodall and Hoffman. I love her reaction to Hoffman\u2019s antiquated ideas of courting a young lady. I also love that Roher, who co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Ramsey, doesn\u2019t paint her as some random love interest with no defining traits. Ruthie is smart, talented and feisty. She doesn\u2019t fall immediately head over heels for Niki. More than once, she expresses concern about her budding career and how a relationship might affect it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tuner<\/strong> is just about perfect save for an unbelievable plot twist near the end. It has something to do with a watch Niki gifts to Ruthie. You know what? In hindsight, I should have seen it coming, but at the same time, I never would have thought Roher would resort to a cheap trick like that. On the other hand, it does give Niki a possible way out of a situation he\u2019s long since lost control of.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I know many of you out there are looking forward to the big titles hitting cinemas in the next few months. That\u2019s fine, no judgment from my end. Tuner<\/strong> is for that subset of viewers who prefer something a little more substantial. It\u2019s smart, suspenseful and funny. It has characters worth investing in emotionally. It has a story that doesn\u2019t rely solely on thrills. It\u2019s an intelligent crime drama for adults. That kind of entertainment is typically in short supply during the hot weather months. If it sounds like something you\u2019d enjoy, you better get on it right away. It won\u2019t be around for long.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuner (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Black Bear\/Drama-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, some violence, drug use, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Daniel Roher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Will Bates\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Lowell A. Meyer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno, Dustin Hoffman, Nissan Sakira, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tuner-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14521,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14517\/revisions\/14521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}