Tuner, now playing in theaters throughout Israel, is an offbeat, interesting drama and crime caper, with some funny moments.
Entertainment
Will Smith revives career with strong 'Bad Boys' box office opening
Two years after his infamous Oscars meltdown, Will Smith has slapped away lingering doubts about his career comeback.
A rare bright spot in the sluggish summer box office, the action-comedy “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” — co-starring Martin Lawrence — opened at the top of the box office charts this weekend with $56 million in domestic ticket sales and $104.6 million globally.
The stronger-than-expected debut for the fourth installment in the long-running buddy-cop franchise marks Smith’s 15th time leading a film to the No. 1 spot at the box office. The achievement is particularly notable as Smith returns to one of his best-known roles in his first major theatrical release since he stormed onto the stage and struck Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. (The actor, who went on to win the lead actor prize for his turn in “King Richard,” subsequently resigned from the film academy and apologized for his conduct.)
Given Smith’s track record — with more than $9 billion in lifetime box office earnings globally — industry expectations for “Ride or Die” heading into the weekend were cautiously optimistic.
The star’s last major outing, director Antoine Fuqua’s 2022 period action thriller “Emancipation,” in which Smith played an escaped slave, was largely ignored in its limited theatrical release and failed to earn any awards love, leaving the actor’s future an open question. But with the latest “Bad Boys” film, Smith found himself once again on solid ground, reuniting with Lawrence in a franchise dating back to his mid-1990s box office heyday.
Lawrence, left, and Smith in a scene from “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.”
(Frank Masi)
While “Ride or Die” fell short of the $62.5 million opening of its predecessor, 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life” — which ended up as the biggest box office hit of that pandemic-dampened year — it still delivered a much-needed boost to Hollywood’s summer box office, which has seen a string of releases like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” underperform.
Even with the relative success of “Ride or Die,” total domestic box office year-to-date is still running a staggering 26% below last year. As Hollywood continues to struggle to recover from the double-whammy of the pandemic and the strikes, the industry will take the good news anywhere it can find it.
“Ordinarily the gold standard [for a summer blockbuster] is a $100 million opening but in the context of this marketplace, this is a total win both for Will Smith and for the industry writ large,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm ComScore. “I think it also shows that, despite the fact that many moviegoers decry the lack of originality, this R-rated buddy-cop formula was exactly what audiences were looking for. If you look at the top summer movies, generally speaking they’re those tried-and-true brands and genres and stars.”
Indeed, while “Ride or Die” earned mixed reviews from critics, audiences were more favorable. Moviegoers, more than half of whom were under 35 and roughly 44% of whom were Black, gave the film an A-minus in CinemaScore in exit polls and a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Past controversy notwithstanding, Sony, which released “Ride or Die,” did not shy away from Smith in its marketing, with the star conducting an extensive publicity tour and showing up at the film’s Los Angeles premiere performing his 1997 hit “Miami” atop a double-decker bus.
For audiences, there is a certain Pavlovian response to showing up for a summer movie starring Smith, who has had a disproportionate impact on Hollywood’s most critical season with past blockbusters like “Independence Day,” “Men in Black,” “Hancock” and “I, Robot.” But at age 55, with his popularity dinged by the fallout from his Oscars outburst, it remains to be seen how he might fare outside of that familiar comfort zone.
“They used to call Will Smith ‘Mr. Fourth of July’ — there was a time when you’d look up ‘summer movie season’ in the dictionary and his picture would be there,” says Dergarabedian. “If you plug in Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and ‘Bad Boys,’ you’re going to have a hit — it’s just a fait accompli. The bigger question is, what’s his next movie going to do?”
Sony also claimed the No. 2 spot this weekend, with “The Garfield Movie” pulling in $10 million in its third week of release. To date, the animated film about the lasagna-loving feline has grossed $68.6 million in North America and $192 million globally.
Paramount’s family film “If” claimed the third slot with $8 million in its fourth weekend of release. After a slow start, the film has earned $93.5 million domestically and $160.7 million worldwide.
This weekend’s other major new release, the supernatural horror film “The Watchers,” landed in fourth place with a disappointing $7 million from 3,351 venues. Directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, and starring Dakota Fanning, the film was panned by critics and audiences alike, earning a C- CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five, Disney and 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” with $5.4 million in its fourth weekend, has earned $149 million in North America and $359.8 globally but is still lagging behind the three previous installments in the rebooted franchise.
While “Ride or Die” provided a moment of hope for the beleaguered box office — or at least a brief respite from the doom — the next few weeks will determine whether this is the beginning of a sustained recovery or merely a temporary blip in an otherwise dismal summer season. The Pixar sequel “Inside Out 2” hits theaters next week, followed at the end of June by the prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” and the Kevin Costner-directed western epic “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1.”
“If this movie had underperformed, we’d be really pulling our hair out trying to figure out what’s going on,” says Dergarabedian. “This was a great result but it didn’t move the needle. It took us a while to get here and it’s not going to change overnight. But at least we’re stepping in the right direction.”
Movie Reviews
Film review: ‘Tuner’ mixes classical music, crime, and Dustin Hoffman | The Jerusalem Post
It co-stars Dustin Hoffman in a story of a young piano tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall), a former music prodigy with perfect pitch who suffers from hyperacusis, a condition that makes him extraordinarily sensitive to loud noises.
In a series of events that are a bit improbable but that seem quite credible while you’re watching, Niki discovers his finely tuned hearing gives him a great talent for safecracking, which brings him to the attention of a crime gang.
It features a clever, often surprising screenplay, co-written by its director, Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for the documentary, Navalny) and Robert Ramsey. There are also wonderful performances from the cast, which also includes distinguished actress Tovah Feldshuh of Nobody Wants This and Fauda star Lior Raz.
The characters have a nice, funny raport
When Tuner opens, Niki is working in a piano-tuning business in New York with a former musician, Harry Horowitz (Hoffman).
The beefy, laconic, young man treats the garrulous, wisecracking Harry with respect, listening patiently to all his jokes and stories about the good old days when he worked with jazz greats.
These two have a nice rapport, as Niki drives Harry all over the New York area in an old van and eats in diners with him.
Niki does the work while Harry sits on a sofa, critiquing him.
The two stick out like sore thumbs in the many mansions where they work on spectacular pianos that haven’t been played in decades, for clients who ask them if they can also repair toilets and modems.
Harry, who never made much of a living despite his talent, has fallen on hard times, and he and his wife, Marla (Feldshuh), are barely scraping by. Niki is also broke.
Recognizing what a great musician Niki is, Harry tries to cajole him into playing again, but the younger man refuses, living an isolated life and trying not to draw attention to himself.
The three incidents that set the plot in motion
Harry has forgotten the combination to his safe and needs to open it. When Niki goes on YouTube to look at a video on how to do it, he discovers that his sensitive hearing makes him a genius at safecracking.
Harry becomes ill and, due to a mess with Medicare, suddenly falls into a huge debt; and Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), an extremely ambitious pianist and composing student, who is astounded by his perfect pitch.
Soon, Niki’s talent for safecracking draws the attention of Uri (Lior Raz), an Israeli who runs a bogus security company, where he uses his knowledge of his client’s homes and passwords to steal what he contends are minor trinkets, but which add up to big money for his gang, much like Jon Hamm’s character in the Apple TV series, Your Friends and Neighbors.
Raz hams it up as a character who fits the stereotype of the obnoxious Israeli in the US, and lords it over his supposedly bright accomplice, Yoni (Gil Frank), and his much dimmer nephew, Benny (Nissan Sakira).
Much of the comedy in the movie comes from Uri browbeating the two, and if you can understand the Hebrew, it’s even funnier than the subtitles.
Criticisms of Tuner
Niki’s romance with Ruthie, which develops quickly, feels a little convenient at times, though the screenplay paints a realistic picture of the competitive world of high-level music students. You know, for most of the movie, that eventually Niki will reveal to her that he was once a great pianist, and when it comes, it’s something of an anti-climax.
After Hoffman’s character gets sick, he disappears from the rest of the movie except for a couple of scenes, and that’s too bad. It’s great to see Hoffman having fun as Harry, and the scenes where he and Niki banter help humanize the younger man, making him more likable and less self-centered.
Woodall is one of the most in-demand young actors. He played a hunky love interest in both Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and the Netflix series Vladimir; he also appeared in the second season of The White Lotus.
He has a buff body and conventional leading-man good looks, and generally plays confident, happy-go-lucky guys, which means he is cast against type here.
Niki is the kind of role that might seem better suited for actors like Josh O’Connor, Jeremy Allen White, or Timothée Chalamet. Woodall has to work hard to convince us he is withdrawn and feels out of place in all the mansions where he tunes pianos, but his charm wins out, and soon, you come to accept him in the role.
Mixed music and mixed genres
The soundtrack features a mix of classical music and jazz, and it’s clear it was made by a director who appreciates both.
Tuner settles neatly into a mini-genre of movies that feature plot lines that combine piano-playing characters and crime, that include James Toback’s Fingers with Harvey Keitel, and Jacques Audiard’s remake of it, The Beat that My Heart Skipped with Romain Duris; Francois Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player with Charles Aznavour; and Eugenio Mira’s Grand Piano with Elijah Wood. It also recalls the spirit of Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces, which features Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances; here as a piano prodigy who has rejected his oppressive family and become an oil field worker.
Tuner shares some of the bleakness typical of 1970s films, like Fingers and Five Easy Pieces. At times, the movie moves jarringly between brooding, almost noir-like darkness and scenes with the chatty Harry or the bumbling gangsters.
It might have been a stronger film if Roher had gone in one direction instead of mixing genres, but it would likely have been less entertaining.
Tom Sandoval’s girlfriend Victoria Lee Robinson was arrested after the two had an altercation that involved her father being pushed into a lit fire pit.
Sandoval, known for the cheating “Scandoval” that erupted on the reality television series “Vanderpump Rules,” filed a restraining order against the model and her father J. Will Robinson (who goes by Will) over a June 3 incident that was partially caught on video. He was granted a temporary restraining order and a subsequent hearing was set for July 16.
According to court documents obtained by The Times, the altercation involving Sandoval, Victoria Robinson and J. Will Robinson happened in the early morning hours after the couple returned home from a night out at a bar. Sandoval claimed in the petition that since the two became a couple in February 2024, Victoria Lee Robinson has been violent and attacked him physically, as well as changing the passwords on his phone and social media and tracking him using Airtags.
“The most recent physical incident occurred on June 3 when [she] punched my face and injured my neck and ear. During this same incident, Mr. Robinson, grabbed me and punched an approximately 12-inch hole in the door of my spare bedroom where I was barricading myself,” reads the petition.
In a video, obtained by TMZ, that captured part of the June 3 incident, Victoria Robinson and Will Robinson are seen sitting next to a lit fire pit on the patio when Sandoval and Will Robinson begin arguing. Sandoval is heard yelling at Will Robinson before he asks Victoria Robinson if she is recording and approaches her. Will Robinson stands and wraps his arms around Sandoval, seemingly to get him to back away from Victoria Robinson, and Sandoval turns and pushes Will Robinson, who falls backward into the lit fire pit.
After Will Robinson gets back up, he rushes after Sandoval into the home while Victoria Robinson screams for the men to stop.
According to the petition, the fight escalated, and Will Robinson phoned the police while Sandoval hid inside a spare bedroom. When police arrived, the petition claims that they initially put Sandoval in handcuffs, but after reviewing footage, Victoria Robinson was arrested for intimate partner battery with physical violence.
Robinson bonded out and was released the same day. The Los Angeles Police Department was not able to confirm the reason for Victoria Robinson’s arrest.
Representatives for Sandoval did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. Victoria Robinson could not be reached for comment.
According to the petition, both Victoria Robinson and her father have lived in the Los Angeles rental home with Sandoval. According to the filing, the reality star hopped between hotels and friends’ houses after the June 3 incident.
Will Robinson told TMZ, “The DA did not file the case for a reason. I lifted Tom off of my daughter because he was overpowering and twisting her arm and trying to take her phone aggressively after yelling at us in a very aggressive and threatening manner.”
“This is my daughter’s home and we just want Tom as far away from us as possible and to keep his lies and drunken abuse away,” Robinson said.
“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” This is one of the culminating lines from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit 2015 musical “Hamilton,” but it’s also the animating force behind Michael Sarnoski’s “The Death of Robin Hood,” starring Hugh Jackman in the title role. This legendary figure of English folklore has a specific meaning attached to his name, which is synonymous with the altruistic impulse to redistribute wealth. But in his take on the tale, focusing on the end of his life, Sarnoski suggests that perhaps Robin Hood wasn’t such a good guy, even if he was robbing from the rich to give to the poor. It all depends on who’s telling the story, right?
Sarnoski burst onto the scene in 2021 with his debut feature “Pig,” in which he outfitted Nicolas Cage with a long gray wig and sent him on a dangerous quest (to find his beloved, valuable pet). He does something similar in “The Death of Robin Hood,” outfitting Jackman in a long gray wig and sending him on a quest (to achieve some kind of salvation).
But first, Sarnoski has to establish that this Robin Hood isn’t the one we remember from the movies — he’s not the dashing cartoon Disney fox, or Errol Flynn, or Kevin Costner, or Cary Elwes, or Russell Crowe, or even Taron Egerton. No, this Robin Hood is much worse, sleeping in matted filth on the moors, reduced to a feral life of constant vigilance against murderous revenge-seekers for the years of evil deeds he’s carried out with his compatriot, Little John (Bill Skarsgård).
Now called Edward, Little John has achieved some measure of domesticity, but still, he and Robin go a-murdering once again, resulting in a yet another vengeful attack from a relative of their victims. A wounded Robin ends up in an idyllic priory on a coastal island, tended to by a healer, Brigid (Jodie Comer), learning the ropes from the local leper (Murray Bartlett). In this oasis, Robin’s identity is unknown, and he finds the space to embrace a gentler side of himself, particularly with Little John/Edward’s daughter, Little Margaret (Faith Delaney).
Set on the misty outlying islands of the North Atlantic, with its blend of bloody, brutal violence, primitive spirituality and meditative tone, “The Death of Robin Hood” is situated in the realm of films like David Lowery’s “The Green Knight” and Robert Eggers’ “The Northman.” Cinematographer Pat Scola pulls some arresting images out of the fire and fog, and the score of largely traditional Celtic music by Jim Ghedi is easily one of the best of the year. The film is a fine showcase for a different kind of performance from Jackman, and Comer is always a compelling screen presence.
But “The Death of Robin Hood” isn’t as hallucinatory or weird as it could — or should — be. Sarnoski gestures at bleakness but feints from full existential crisis; he tries and fails to be witchy. Despite all the mud and blood, nothing about this film is particularly earthy or embodied. It ends up as this profoundly dull and utterly pointless commentary on the concept of narrative and mythology. “What if Robin Hood was a bad guy?” OK, what of it? The best concept that Sarnoski presents here is the hell of living in an endless cycle of vengeance, but he allows his anti-hero to escape that all too cleanly and conveniently. This Robin Hood is just an old, tired man who ultimately finds some peace at the end of his life, even if it’s unearned.
As an audience, we’re left wondering what all of this is for, and who it’s for. Why trouble the Robin Hood myth at all, and why now? One can’t help but cynically wonder if the inspiration for this project was merely the convenience of recognizable intellectual property and available financing from Screen Ireland. This theory might be creatively pessimistic, but it is a nagging question, especially when the ones posed by the film are already so stale and tired. Expect no revelations from “The Death of Robin Hood” except the one that’s announced in the title.
‘The Death of Robin Hood’
2 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence)
Running time: 2:03
How to watch: In theaters June 19
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