Full Breakdown
Tuner (2025) – Heist Thriller Built on Hyperacusis
5/28/2026, 2:17:10 AM
Plot Overview
Niki White (Leo Woodall) is a piano tuner whose hyperacusis makes ordinary sounds painful but gives him perfect pitch. While tuning a piano in a wealthy New York home, he overhears a crew drilling a safe and is recruited by security-company boss Uri (Lior Raz) to crack it. To fund his mentor Harry Horowitz’s (Dustin Hoffman) hospital bills, Niki joins a series of safe-cracking jobs, gifts his lover Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu) a stolen Rolex, and ultimately faces a climactic heist involving a Billy Joel concert.
Production Background
Director Daniel Roher, the 32-year-old Oscar winner of the documentary *Navalny*, turned to narrative filmmaking after meeting piano tuner Peter White. He cites Scorsese, Tarantino and Fellini as early influences and describes the project as a “fast-on-its-feet” crime story meant to entertain while exploring moral stakes.
Key Creative Figures
- Daniel Roher – Director, Oscar-winning documentarian, co-writer with Robert Ramsey.
- Leo Woodall – Lead actor, 29, prepared by consulting hyperacusis sufferer Alex Ruger and undergoing months of piano training.
- Dustin Hoffman – Veteran actor portraying mentor Harry Horowitz.
- Havana Rose Liu – Plays pianist Ruthie, Niki’s love interest.
- Lior Raz – Appears as criminal leader Uri.
- Jean Reno – Cast as composer Marius Maissner.
- Johnnie Burn – Sound designer responsible for the film’s hyperacusis-centered soundscape.
Data & Statistics
- Runtime: 109 minutes; Rating: R.
- Distributed by Black Bear; theatrical venues include Dedham Community Theatre, Coolidge Corner, AMC Boston Common and Alamo Drafthouse Seaport.
- U.S. theatrical release: May 29 (2026).
Official Statements & Responses
Roher emphasized his intent to keep the film “fun, buoyant and fast-paced,” noting, “I love the moral stakes of crime stories… a good guy doing a bad thing for the right reason.” Woodall described hyperacusis as “a really crippling disease condition… He can’t live any kind of a crumb of a normal life,” adding that the condition left his character “really lonely.” Both directors and actors highlighted the collaborative effort to portray the auditory experience authentically.
Criticism & Opposition
The *Boston Globe* called the movie “cliché-laden” with “too many crowd-goosing moments” and condemned its “unnecessary final act.” *Vague Visages* argued that hyperacusis functions mainly as a plot gimmick, that the crime narrative is generic, and that the Israeli-origin villains lack cultural specificity. The *Boston Herald* praised Woodall’s career momentum but noted his performance does not fully convey the disability’s social impact.
Representation of Hyperacusis
Johnnie Burn’s design creates a “piercing, abrasive soundscape” that places audiences in Niki’s auditory world, using noise-cancelling headphones as a visual cue. Critics, however, contend the condition is employed chiefly to heighten tension rather than to explore lived experience.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Sources differ on the villains’ nationality—*Vague Visages* labels them Israeli, while the screenplay never specifies. Release timing is cited as a 2025 production with a 2026 theatrical opening, and box-office figures remain unreported.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I’m blushing,” says the director, 32. “That’s so sick. Nope, that’s unbridled youthful naivete and energy that you’re mistaking for a steady hand.” — Daniel Roher, Director
- “I love the moral stakes of crime stories,” he says. “I love a good guy doing a bad thing for the right reason.” — Daniel Roher, Director
- “It’s a really crippling disease condition. He can’t live any kind of a crumb of a normal life,” Woodall, 29, learned. “And he’s really lonely.” — Leo Woodall, Actor
- “It might be damning with faint praise to say that the best thing about Tuner — the narrative debut of Oscar-winning documentarian Daniel Roher — is the way it sounds, but the piercing, abrasive soundscape heard from the perspective of the hearing-impaired Niki White (Leo Woodall) is the sole novelty of the generic New York crime story.” — Vague Visages reviewer
What’s Next
Following its May 29 launch, *Tuner* will run through the summer circuit, positioning Roher for potential awards consideration while he concurrently finalizes the AI documentary *The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist*.