Daniel Roher
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Connections, in both directions
Tuner’s New York City backdrop and “white guy trying to make ends meet” premise is strongly reminiscent of Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, though the central romance and Roher’s sense of snappy fervor rather fall in line with Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, minus the overt genre elements.
Taking more than a little inspiration from Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, it’s a film where the sound design is unusually meaningful and immersive…
…a laid back Baby Driver by way of that other recent, highly nostalgic Jewish NYC crime caper, Caught Stealing…
He’s a mix of Baby from Baby Driver (has a special interest that functions like a superpower) and Hank Thompson from Caught Stealing (a former child prodigy haunted by a tragic past), but unlike those two, he’s thoroughly proactive in his decision-making.
There’s more than a passing nod to Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver in Tuner. But despite hitting many similar narrative beats, Roher’s movie finds its own distinct sound as the hum of an engine and the loud beats of pop and rock classics are replaced by softer piano tones, a sublime Jazz score, and the delightful performances of Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, and a cracking ensemble.
More inspiration could have been taken from films like Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright, 2017)—especially as both stories are essentially “good-natured boy with an ear problem does crime, but for good reason.”
Tuner’s obviously indebted to Michael Mann’s Thief and Steven Soderbergh heist films, though intertextuality is always exciting to me.
…a neo-thriller comparable to classics such as Thief and Drive…
Think Caught Stealing, but more like Michael Mann’s Thief.
I could not help but compare it to two earlier heist films – Michel Mann's "Thief (!981)" and "Baby Driver (2017)" by Edgar Wright. Of the t here, "Thief" is the best.
…molding his film, co-written with Robert Ramsey, into an engaging hybrid of crime drama and swoony rom-com, a la “Drive.”
…a neo-thriller comparable to classics such as Thief and Drive…
The film shares DNA with Baby Driver (2017) and Drive (2011), both of which use sound to pull focus on the tension and mood.
There’s also a well timed use of Nina Simon’s Sinnerman – which notes John McTiernan’s The Thomas Crown Affair. That 1999 Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo film was another New York set romantic thriller based around the world of high class thievery. The two films echo each other like a cinematic call and response across a 27 year age gap in a way that feels timeless.
…the film borrows familiar notes from The Thomas Crown Affair and Baby Driver…
…set to Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman,” a loud and clear heist film nod to 1999’s highly entertaining The Thomas Crown Affair remake…
Like “Marty Supreme” (2025), the Holocaust becomes the backstory of the film.
Marty Supreme of course plays the third note in this oddly overlapping cinematic chord this past year, though the relentless Safdie pitch would certainly shatter Niki’s eardrums…
Tuner’s New York City backdrop and “white guy trying to make ends meet” premise is strongly reminiscent of Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, though the central romance and Roher’s sense of snappy fervor rather fall in line with Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, minus the overt genre elements.
Not since Whiplash has a film made audiences so aware of every note, key or click.
It’s genuinely Thief in the vein of Whiplash, with a lively, jazzy score, a great “Sinnerman” needle drop, and snappy editing.
I appreciated that the script resists taking their relationship down a “Sound of Metal”-style path, opting instead for something gentler and more understated.
The way sound is used reminds me a lot of what I loved about Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal (2019).
…a laid back Baby Driver by way of that other recent, highly nostalgic Jewish NYC crime caper, Caught Stealing…
I was really let down by Darren Aronofsky’sCaught Stealing, a crime thriller set in New York City starring Austin Butler as an ordinary guy forced into the world of crime. In it, he must contend with his traumatic past as a former child prodigy whose life took a dark turn.
…after a while it starts feeling more like James Toback’s Fingers…
He plays the role with a very obvious ‘Rain Man’ quality. So much so that at some point one of the thugs he associates with unsubtly calls him that, in one of the film’s many, many indelicate moments.
…the great Dustin Hoffman is underused in a role that acts as an (at times, explicit) reference to Rain Man…
At times Harry reminds me of his character in Rain Man, and there’s even a brief nod to that Oscar-winning film in the dialogue.
Tuner also riffs on another iconic Hoffman role; the protagonist here, piano tuner Nikki White (Leo Goodall) is disparagingly referred to as Rain Man by the crew of home-robbers he falls in with…
In fact, “Tuner” shares much in common with Audiard’s “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” with both exploring the intersection of concert piano playing and small-time crime.
La película encuentra un tono muy particular que recuerda, por momentos, al cine de los hermanos Safdie, aunque despojado de la ansiedad que caracteriza obras como Good Time o Uncut Gems.
La película encuentra un tono muy particular que recuerda, por momentos, al cine de los hermanos Safdie, aunque despojado de la ansiedad que caracteriza obras como Good Time o Uncut Gems.
…in the French film Rififi, the sound during the jewel heist is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Roher could have easily pushed the film toward a “Blow Out”-style homage…
The plot can feel formulaic, but as someone who has watched hundreds of episodes of procedurals like ER—I find comfort in that.
A tool from an iconic “Jackass” prank being deployed to incapacitate the hero…
Sharpness in both dialogue (see: Michael Clayton) and action (see: Hell or High Water) creates propulsion, percussively jumping from beat to beat to seamless effect.
…along the same lines as Bryan Mills’s “very particular set of skills” from Taken, only far less lethal…
As a piece of cinematic homage, it’s a solid pairing with Bart Layton’s recent Crime 101, though Tuner ekes out by being over half an hour shorter and far more contained.