Ladies, if it is your intent to hit the town this Valentine’s Day with a gaggle of girlfriends, then you might consider making a stop at Sfuzzi Uptown — say, around 10 pm.
Hunky Sean Lowe, star of this season’s The Bachelor on ABC, will be at Sfuzzi on the Day of Love for a meet and greet. What does that mean, exactly? Depending on the crowd, says manager Jeff Lavrenchik, either Lowe will be free to move about the restaurant, shaking hands and kissing cheeks, or he will be set up with a receiving line.
If you are curious, yes, Sfuzzi is serving a set Valentine’s Day menu — a three-courser with roasted pear salad or tomato soup, herb-citrus steamed halibut or spaghetti with pork meatballs, and panna cotta — but come 10 pm, the vibe is certain to shift to something a little less, shall we say, romantic.
Lavrenchik says only 6 pm reservations remain — and diners with earlier reservations will have to get up to make way for those with later seating times — but walk-ins are welcome to try their luck. Bar seating is available all night on a first-come, first-served basis.
No word yet on whether Lowe will be wearing a shirt.
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Tonight at 7, Lowe and his ladies head to St. Croix, where he narrows down the pool to four. To catch up on what’s happening so far this season, read the recaps.
Bachelor Sean Lowe is hosting Valentine's Day at Sfuzzi Uptown. Presumably he will wear a shirt for the Uptown event.
Photo courtesy of ABC
Bachelor Sean Lowe is hosting Valentine's Day at Sfuzzi Uptown. Presumably he will wear a shirt for the Uptown event.
Of all the ways that movies depict people trying to steal money and other valuables, safe cracking is among the least exciting. By design, it’s a laborious process that only those with a very certain set of skills can do. While clever editing and the right music can enhance scenes of safes being cracked, there’s a reason that the method is among the least used in heist films.
In the new film Tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall) has a job and a condition that just happens to lend itself well to committing that specific crime. He works as an apprentice piano tuner for Harry (Dustin Hoffman), usually doing the hard work while Harry schmoozes the client. Niki is well-suited for the job because he has a rare condition called hyperacusis, which makes him both sensitive to loud noises and able to hear subtle things that others cannot.
When he runs across a trio of criminals trying to break open a safe at a house where he’s tuning a piano, he helps them more out of frustration than avarice. But when Harry goes into the hospital and racks up huge bills, Niki decides to join the group to make some quick money. They soon want more than he’s willing to give, and he must find a way to extricate himself from them without losing himself completely.
Written and directed by documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher (making his narrative feature debut) and co-written by Robert Ramsey, the film has a nice pace to it despite there being relatively little action. Roher and Ramsey spend the first third or so establishing Niki, Harry, and Harry’s wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) as characters, letting the audience understand their relationships and how they interact with each other.
The time they devote to the personal storytelling pays dividends when Niki starts to descend into crime, as his divided loyalties - not to mention the danger of the thefts - insert tension into the plot. That stress is heightened even more when Niki starts a relationship with piano student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), as getting closer to her necessitates a series of lies.
There comes a point, though, where the plot stagnates to a degree. Niki’s end goal, if he has one, is never clear, and it’s obvious that it’s only a matter of time before things start to fall apart. After starting strong in their character development, Roher and Ramsey take shortcuts as the film rushes toward its conclusion. This is most notable in a weird argument scene between Niki and Ruthie that comes out of nowhere and seems to serve no purpose in the story.
Woodall, who had a memorable turn in season 2 of The White Lotus, is on the cusp of breaking out, and this understated-but-compelling lead role should help him become an even bigger name in Hollywood. Hoffman has a small role, but he remains as interesting as ever despite the lack of screentime. Liu (Bottoms) is also an up-and-coming actor who should become a star with more roles like this one.
Tuner is a low-key thriller that succeeds because of the way the filmmakers approach the under-used method of robbery. Even if it doesn’t quite reach its potential, the film maintains a high quality throughout thanks to its storytelling and acting.
