Forget Guy Ritchie, Paramount+'s Crime Thriller Is One of the Biggest Movies in the World

Published Oct 8, 2026, 7:21 AM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

Out of all of 2026's unsung gems, the one that is destined to have the longest tail on streaming has to be Tuner, which saw a modest theatrical release over the summer. Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival the year prior, this modest heist thriller/crime drama by Daniel Roher is a meat-and-potatoes genre movie that satisfies viewers with its simplicity and exceptional craft. They say that they don't make them like they used to, but films like Tuner are exactly the kinds of relics of the 1970s and 1980s that you have to search hard for today. Luckily, the film, starring Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, and Dustin Hoffman, is available to stream on Paramount+, and this critical darling is climbing up the streamer's charts. Channeling the gritty crime capers of Michael Mann and Guy Ritchie, Tuner is a familiar story told with invigorating panache.

'Tuner' is a Refined Take on a Classic Crime Story

Image via Black Bear

Oscar winner Daniel Roher comes from the world of documentary filmmaking, but you'd never guess that from his assured and inspired direction in Tuner. Having directed the Best Documentary Feature-winning Navalny and The AI Doc, which was also released in 2026, Rohmer showed an ability to tackle pressing, hot-button issues, but directing a narrative film like Tuner required a knowledge of the 100-year history of the crime genre. This film's twist on the tried-and-true "one last job" heist thriller is its hard-of-hearing protagonist, Niki White (Woodall). Due to his hyperacusis, he had to give up his dreams of piano playing and has shifted to working as a piano tuner for wealthy clients with his late father's friend, Harry Horowitz (Hoffman). After inadvertently catching thieves breaking into a safe full of jewels, Niki becomes the gang's secret weapon, as his auditory condition makes him adept at unlocking safes without heavy machinery.

For better or worse, Tuner is not filled with many surprises, as it comfortably relies on the genre's tested tropes, from the mentor figure who experiences a health crisis to the neglected love interest, Ruthie (Liu). The plot twist during the film's hectic climax feels too choreographed and weighed down by movie logic, and it's prone to cause some viewers to snicker at the screen. Otherwise, Tuner's sampling of familiar beats creates a wildly entertaining and thoughtful genre exercise and character study. Woodall, who recently stole the show in Matt Johnson's Tony, announced himself as a legitimate star in Tuner, giving a minimalist performance for the ages that is sold entirely on his muted gravitas. Along with strong supporting turns by Havana Rose Liu and Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman, Tuner shows no signs of being made by a narrative film rookie.

Audiences Deserve More Movies Like 'Tuner'

These days, movies like Tuner are relegated to streaming fodder, where they will be forgotten in the endless pool of original content. But with its jarring turns of physical and emotional violence and "ah-ha" plot reveals, the film plays well with an engaged crowd ready to be impressed by this original story. Best of all, Roher's virtuosity behind the camera complements the film's conceit of a hard-of-hearing piano tuner turning into a preternatural safe-cracker. Tuner's mixing of silence with abrupt, ear-shattering sounds, and the slick editing techniques to demonstrate the main character’s intricate process of tuning pianos and cracking safes, are intoxicating. Every insert shot inside the safe as the lock twirls through the internal structure, accompanied by a foot-tapping jazz score, never gets old. A script's predictability is easier to excuse when it's directed with such confidence as Roher displays in Tuner. While it clearly signals its influences, the director firmly places himself in the lineage of great crime auteurs.

Tuner checks many of the boxes that audiences allegedly want to see in movie theaters after years of superhero/IP blockbusters dominating multiplexes. Daniel Roher's film sits comfortably in between a prestigious drama and a junky B-movie. Appealing to middlebrow sensibilities while also showing maximum attention to craft and character, Tuner strikes the perfect balance that mainstream audiences used to receive regularly. Back then, one of the tentpole studios, not Black Bear Pictures, would have released this on over 1,500 screens. Either way, Tuner deserves your time, and you'll be stunned by how well this inconspicuous indie fares against the top-line studio pictures.

Tuner

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  Leo Woodall

  Niki White

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  Harry Horowitz

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  Havana Rose Liu

  Ruthie

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  Tovah Feldshuh

  Marla