Tuner: Sadly off-key

Tuner (2025) • View trailer

Three stars (out of five); rated R, for violence, dramatic intensity and considerable profanity

Available via: Amazon Prime and other VOD options

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.20.26

Of all the ways a film can fail, the most disappointing is when script, execution and tone show great promise during the first two acts...

 

...and then everything goes to hell during the third act, leaving viewers unsatisfied, and with an expression of bewildered “what the heck?” 

 

Upon arrival at each client's home, Harry (Dustin Hoffman) does all the talking and
glad-handing, while the genial and mostly silent Niki (Leo Woodall) focuses on
tuning an often unloved piano.

That’s sadly the case with this film, Academy Award-winning documentarian Daniel Roher’s first dramatic feature. The beguiling premise in Roher and Robert Ransey’s script is clever and fascinating; the primary characters are deftly sculpted and credibly portrayed by all cast members; and when blended with the initially relaxed atmosphere — shaded with just a dollop of danger — the result is an entertaining viewing experience.

Until the final half hour, anyway.

 

Niki White (Leo Woodall) and long-time New York City piano tuner Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) are introduced during an amusing montage of their various assignments, mostly for wealthy clients. Harry, once a close friend of Niki’s late father, has become absent-minded, and is losing his hearing. 

 

Niki’s initial position as apprentice has blossomed into something much closer to a family bond; Harry’s wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh, marvelous as always) dotes on the young man, as does Harry.

 

At work, Harry and Niki are an amusing Mutt ’n’ Jeff pair, with the former’s easygoing manner and motor-mouthed, often off-topic chatter wholly at odds with the younger man’s cheerful patience, frequently rolled eyes, and focused, measured responses. Harry always dresses “nicely,” although his clothes appear several styles out of date; Niki favors dark jumpsuits. We get the impression that his wardrobe — and lifestyle — are simple and minimal.

 

Harry is a longtime jazz aficionado, and frequently regales Niki with back-in-the-day encounters with cats such as Herbie Hancock, who gave Harry the amusing nickname — “Tuner Fish” — by which he’s often greeted. Niki takes such stories with a dubious grain of salt.

 

Further in that vein, Will Bates’ jazz-inflected original score often is interrupted by snatches of familiar tunes by Dave Brubeck, Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Nina Simone and several others.

 

Hoffman is a hoot in this role, his manner repeatedly shifting between impish, impatient and nostalgic, and back again. He effortlessly steals focus, although Woodall possesses plenty of his own quiet charm (amply displayed in his role as the hunky park ranger, in last year’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy).

Armageddon Time: Heartbreaking growing pains

ArmageddonTime (2022) • View trailer

4.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for profanity and drug use

Available via: Amazon Prime and other streaming options

By Derrick Bang

If Armageddon is viewed as the end of life as we know it, that’s also an apt description of the rude awakening experienced by an adolescent, the first time s/he is confronted by the world’s harsh realities.

 

When the emotional complexities of adolescence prove overwhelming, Paul
(Banks Repeta, left) knows that he can count on understanding and benevolent
wisdom from his Grampa Aaron (Anthony Hopkins).

Because that moment truly is the end of blissful childhood innocence.

Writer/director James Gray’s delicately nuanced, semi-autobiographical drama is both familiar and painfully intimate. It’s an excellent companion piece to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, with a similar focus on interpersonal dynamics and emotionally shattering revelations. Both families are Jewish, and this heritage plays a strong role in their lives. Both sets of parents have worked hard to be upwardly mobile, determined to create better opportunities for their children.

 

But whereas Spielberg’s protagonist ultimately finds release in artistic expression, it’s not entirely clear that Gray’s young alter-ego will be similarly successful.

 

His achingly poignant narrative gets additional punch from the well-crafted work by young Banks Repeta, starring here as Paul Graff. Film dramas often take place at a remove, with viewers aware of the distance between themselves and the characters on screen. Thanks to Gray’s sensitive direction, Repeta’s complex performance — and similarly excellent work from the supporting cast — that sense of distance vanishes. 

 

We frequently feel like interlopers, somehow eavesdropping on real-world events taking place in a home just a few doors down from our own.

 

The time is autumn 1979, the setting New York City at its worst. Paul lives with his parents Irving (Jeremy Strong) and Esther (Anne Hathaway), and older brother Ted (Ryan Sell), in a semi-detached two-family row house in Flushing, Queens. The story begins as Paul begins his first day of sixth grade at the local public school, where he immediately stakes out a reputation as a disruptor.

 

He’s intelligent and funny, but not particularly attentive.

 

Paul’s tendency toward disrespect continues at home, where he’s an insufferably picky eater, battles constantly with his brother, and frequently talks back to his mother. The Graff home — and dinner table — often are boisterous affairs laden with grandparents and other aging relatives. Paul’s behavior skates, in part, because his beloved Grandpa Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) understands that the boy still is finding himself.

 

Even so, while Paul remains a sympathetic character — for the most part — he often isn’t likable. (Not unusual for a kid that age.)