Texas and Baylor will face off in the inaugural Sprouts Farmers Market espnW Invitational on December 14 at Dickies Arena.
Photo courtesy of University of Texas Women's Basketball
Dickies Arena in Fort Worth will have the honor of hosting the first-ever edition of the Sprouts Farmers Market espnW Invitational, featuring a game between Texas and Baylor on Sunday, December 14.
The new event, owned and operated by ESPN Events, will be a matchup between two perennial women's basketball powerhouses, both of which are predicted to be ranked in the top 10 when the season starts.
The Texas Longhorns are coming off a season in which they they clinched their first SEC regular season title, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and made the Final Four before bowing out in the semifinals.
The Baylor Bears had another great year, finishing with a 28-8 record, which was good for second place in the Big 12 and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. They lost in the second round to Ole Miss.
"Since launching in 2010, espnW has been building towards events like this,” said Susie Piotrkowski, Vice President, ESPN Women’s Sports Programming & espnW, in a statement. “The espnW Invitational is a presentation of the game's top athletes competing at the highest level - delivering Women’s Sports fans more of what they crave."
Tickets for the espnW Invitational will go on sale on a to-be-determined date in the fall. Fans can secure first access to the best seats now by registering for the pre-sale at espnevents.com/espnw-invitational.
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.
