Tuner Review

Daniel Roher won an Oscar for the documentary Navalny, and his first fiction film, written with Robert Ramsey, is a New York caper about Niki White (Leo Woodall), a gifted pianist whose hyperacusis means he can no longer play, who tunes pianos with his mentor Harry (Dustin Hoffman) and finds that the same ears can open a safe. When Harry falls ill, Niki goes to work for Uri (Lior Raz), an Israeli thief who robs wealthy homes through his own security company.

Woodall, in the role critics took as his arrival, is funny and oddly tender as a man who hears everything and says the wrong thing, and his scenes with Havana Rose Liu's fiercely competitive young pianist Ruthie are the film's heart. Peter Debruge at Variety wished there were more of Hoffman. The script, which won a Vancouver Film Critics Circle screenplay prize, is warm and quick, and Herbie Hancock turns up in person.

The crime is the weak side. As Harry Stainer wrote in Empire, the heist antics are never as convincing as the romance, and the third act leans on them. It premiered at Telluride in August 2025, went wide in the United States on May 29, 2026, and scored 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 75 on Metacritic.