Tuner – A Resonant Combination
Last night, AMC presented the first wide screening of Tuner under their Screen Unseen banner. First screened at festivals last year, the film starts Leo Woodall as Niki White, a professional piano tuner with a hearing impairment. When his intricate and curious nature leads him into learning safe-cracking, he finds his life’s constants spiraling as he pursues a spontaneous double life.
The film also stars Dustin Hoffman and Tovah Feldshuh as Niki’s family, as well as Havana Rose Liu as Ruthie, a composer and pianist Niki meets on the job. The crime elements staying fairly low-key and street level combined with the delicate nature of Niki’s job help the film feel grounded in reality. The script feels very natural in its characters’ interactions, shortcomings, and struggles; It keeps the characters feeling more human than just “characters”.
The soundscape of the film is, on its own, so incredibly calculated that I’m tempted to see it again if there are Dolby releases nearby. The cut I watched last night is still so fresh in my mind with how it heightened every tense, overstimulating scene by taking the audience with it. The ringing, pulsing, muddled panic that accompanies each sensory attack Niki experiences is so stressful we were talking about it the whole car ride home. Often in Tuner, I would find myself second-guessing who had however much information about his condition, and who was loyal enough to be there for him in such vulnerable moments no matter what.
As is typical with AMC’s Screen Unseen, I went into this film completely blind, but I’d also never heard of this film at all prior to the screening. Walking out of the film satisfied, though, I did have to worry about the competition for its true opening weekend, May 22. This month has been big for horror as a genre, with hits like Hokum and Obsession and Backrooms in discussion. The weekend of the 22nd, however, Tuner will be up against André Øvredal’s Passenger. In addition, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters already has much buzz for that weekend. Perhaps this should be viewed as the three films taking on the real big-budget juggernaut of that coming weekend, Jon Favreau’s Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu. I personally feel all the lower-budget hits of the coming Memorial Day weekend should be given equal spotlight—it is a three-day weekend, after all.
Tuner releases in theaters nationwide May 22nd before a wider release on May 29th, 2026. If you’re hungry for more out-of-this-world crime films, check out The Maltese Falcon over on our sister site, Galxy!