At the age of 30, Canadian filmmaker Daniel Rher had won Oscar for best documentary function for “Navalny.” His Next documentary, “Blink”, premiere on Tellurid last year. Wasting some time and returns to Colorado Rockies a year later with ”Tuner“But” this one feels a little different, “he told a sold out Saturday, before its world premiere at Fest’s Galaxy Theater. He refers to his pivot to narrative film films, and joined a lot of his documentary contemporary that makes the same movement of late-inclusive Joshua Oppenheimer whose musical “The end” Also played Telluride last year.
“Tuner” Continues Leo Woodall’s own move to leading man territory, after “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” “ Earlier this year. The British broke out as the conflicted rental boy in season 2 of “The White Lotus”, and has also played in the latest TV series “One Day” and “Prime Target.” Here he plays Niki, a piano virtuos whose promising career was interrupted by a rare hearing state that makes him “allergic to sound,” he explains in a scene. In the lead role in Dustin Hoffman, the veteran is also leaning on his natural charm in limited screen time such as Harry Horowitz, who runs a small piano setting with Niki as its only employee. A humorous opening installation catalogs the odd couple’s driving over New York City’s five neighborhoods and suits the piano for a variety of rich clients. Harry fills the driving force with rants on mercury levels in tuna, or how it is not cholesterol you should worry about, it is inflammation. (At the latter point, my health friends in LA would say, he is not wrong.)
But this is not a kitchen sink, lifetime drama after two piano-tuners, and filmSAFE-Cracking Delplot is set comfortable-can a forging too much-with a little wasted time. Early on, Niki returns home from dinner at Harry’s and learns, via online tutorials, how to crack Harry’s little home -proof as a service, after Harry accidentally locks his medicines inside. Niki quickly realizes that his hearing conditions have a single silver feed: it gives him a special skill for this practice. He does nothing about it, because when would he possibly be asked to use it again?
But, fortunately, a few short scenes later, during a late night to sue in a seemingly-to-man manor (Billy Joel is scheduled to play this special piano to an advantage), Niki is in a miraculous way to perform the same safe crashing benefit for some shady Israelis. Led by URI (Lior Raz), the trio quickly calls him in their criminal companies with little time, which means swinging cash and luxury articles (watches, jewelry etc.) from Uri’s rich clients. They reason that if they hold take little small clients, their clients will not miss the objects. And if they do? Customers fire their housekeeper and submit an insurance claim. Although it is not an idiot -proof plan, there have been less thoughtful criminal rackets.
Niki hesitates to join them, relying Niki after learning that Harry, who is currently hospitalized after a heart attack, has previously $ 36,000 dilapidated Medicaid counts. Out on his first assignment, Niki freezes, and stands wordless in front of the safe, needs to be further convinced to pull the trigger and come to work. While committing a criminal act should give someone who is not already in that line of work break, he has already agreed, accepted a cash advance and went out with URI and gang to the website. Why does this doubt manifest now and not before? A lack of pre -characterization and depth in Woodall’s performance leads to a moment that feels included solely because this type of film often includes the first determination.
Niki’s condition forces him to wear corded earplugs, along with a pair of noise -reducing headphones that he slides on when things are particularly noisy (which in NYC often is). This sends a clear signal to those who do not know the purpose of the objects, to leave him in peace. And so Niki has learned to navigate in a life of isolation, outside Harry and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh). Woodall’s silently furious and puffy blue eyes remember Jeremy Allen White, while his restless energy and physical appearance call a young Michael Pitt. This combination for a leading man is unique, but it is difficult not to feel that Woodall is wrong because this former pianist turned-tuner, friend-safe cracker, both physically and with a lack of interior he does on the screen in his silent stoicism.
His big arms covered in a series of amateur sticks and tattoos confuses: Is there an unreasonable on Risd or Calarts in Niki’s past? While the rich homeowners often mistake Niki and Harry’s piano setting practice as a blue collar in nature, and often ask the couple to perform tasks such as fixing the toilet or wifi, piano setting is placed in the upper Echelonsna in the bourgeois culture, as a refined, probably even nerdy. What other profession would have a customer base with $ 5,000 that is around – which the movie makes clear is a cheap interest rate – to pay the couple to set their Steinway which they in turn probably never play?
There is an artfulness that piano setting as Woodall explains poetically to music student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), who starts a prison between the two, initially hindered Ruthie’s own stubbornness and legitimate suspicions of Niki’s distant schtick. “Tuner” Coming completely alive when LiU comes into the picture like Ruthie, and she is a revelation in her complex portrayal of this grumpy yet sweet, driven musician Hellbent to secure a community with a well -known composer known as Meissner (Jean Reno). Leaning into the romantic comedy tropes, a chance that learning has Harry to insist that Niki goes her to the class-a walk between two hard drives that go as well as you can expect.
Rher and co -author Robert Ramsey’s script puts them once, this time for good, when Ruthie’s grandmother’s piano is damaged from a roof leak. Out of alternatives, she needs someone quickly to come and help mitigate the injury. Li’s depiction of Ruthie has powers but still never caricatures; She enjoys the convenience in her newfound relationship with Niki, although she is openly confused by him sometimes, as when he presents her a vintage Rolex after just a month’s dating. Close up of her face in various conditions of combustion, affection or frustration dazzles and removes all doubt: Liu is a star.
In this middle section “Tuner” Slides into a well -known narrative register: When Niki comes in deeper with this dangerous thieves, he struggles to balance these commitments with the requirements in his relationship with Ruthie. It will be less if Niki can keep their double lives separated and more about how things will solve between the couple when it will inevitably crash down.
With its extreme sensitivity to all sound, Nikis Kryptonite is a blue Airhorn used by URI to control him when Niki starts actively looking for a way out. A tool from an iconic “jackass” Prank that is placed to incapable the hero and leave him screaming in anxiety on the ground, “tuner” is undoubtedly very stupid and chop closer to a Jacques Audiard image than a hard-boiled crime thriller. Like Audiard, it seems to enjoy combining its odd elements into something emotional and resonant. In fact “tuner” Shares very much in common with Audiard’s “The Beat That My Heart skipped” with both exploring the intersection of concert piano games and small crime.
The intentional throwback -nature of “tuner” Wear the benefits and disadvantages. There is a comfort in simply sitting back and letting its competent filmmaking take you through its well -worn narrative beats. At other times, the script may feel imaginative and too color-for-Numbers, as if it is intended by Rher and Ramsey with Robert McKee’s “story” In one hand, a marker in the other. Some genres subversion would be welcome to refresh things a bit. For a viewer with even a rudimentary understanding of this type of story, many of its turns are choreographed well in advance. But not always. A key third act twist is so random that it is almost impossible to see comma. This twist does not track the story with its great incredible, as much as clarifying what kind of movie you have been throughout.
From the beginning, “Tuner” has largely been a fantasy. Where else does pianotuners occupy such a status that their working days are filled with close constant house calls? And where else can Niki pay off Harry’s medical debt in bars with cash – $ 10,000 at a time – without arousing any suspicion? “Tuner” Correctly realizes that if an audience is invested in the love story at the center, they will forgive someone too consequence. And while the love story in the center of “Tuner” can be captivating, especially during a montage that catalogs Niki and Ruthie’s whirlwind in the first month, LiU is ultimately forced to carry too much of the burden in this department, which then draws these eyebrow support in the light more openly.
Visually, close -ups from within the locking mechanisms for safe it is easy to trace Niki’s progress as he carefully spins the mechanism and listens intensely to the subtle metal clink in a just slightly higher register when the correct number is adapted. It is a satisfactory process to see develops and is done well on the screen, both visually and aurally with sound designer Johnnie Burns (“The Zone of Interest”) expert work. Otherwise “tuner” Throws a lot on the wall stylistically. As Roher’s first narrative project, you feel a desire to play and try lots of things. “What if we placed a camera on the safe handles when Niki spins it?” “How about a fishing reflection of his face in Safe’s Chrome plating?”
It is a playful movie in shape and content, one that rarely takes itself too seriously, and as such it can not help but skate as a pleasant ride, whether it is by allowing Hoffman, Woodall and LiU Space to shop Quips, or through easy editing when you go into a new place. Despite his bright tone, Rher is not afraid to get darker and directly address the difficult situations in which his roles are located, and the film goes the tonal tight between light humor and the high efforts for both safe cracks and new relationships well. But as to remind the audience where its real feelings are lies, it says that the film undermines an emotional close-up of LiU in the film’s closing moments with an off-hand, off the screen from Niki. Betting correctly on how this risk would play, Niki’s line drew a hearty laugh from the Telluride audience and ended the film on a high tone.
Rating: B-
“Tuner” premiered at Telluride Film Festival 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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