Steve (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Follows headteacher Steve battling for his reform college’s survival while managing his mental health. Concurrently, troubled student Shy navigates his violent tendencies and fragility, torn between his past and future prospects.

My Take – With ‘Peaky Blinders‘ becoming a global sensation over its six season run and filmmaker Christopher Nolan‘s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer (2023) finally earning him the Best Actor nod at the 96th Academy Awards, Cillian Murphy has finally entered the phase of his career where he can make and star in whatever he wants. Typically independent projects that hinge on the financial and creative influence of the clout that Murphy now commands.

Such is also the case of this latest Netflix release, which sees Murphy collaborate once again with Belgian director Tim Mielants, following last year’s Small Things like These (2024), in a messy but poignant melodrama about reform students and the struggles of teachers in England during the 1990s.

Based on the 2023 novella ‘Shy‘ by Max Porter, who also wrote the screenplay and flipped the narrative center from the at-risk youth of the title to the head teacher at the school for boys with societal and behavioral difficulties, the film makes for a heavy and profoundly heartbreaking showcase of underfunded reform schools where the kids are given less than they need and the teachers who look out for them.

And though the film is anchored by achingly vulnerable performances, a raw directorial approach and a thoroughly honest screenplay, but without a true central plot to follow, it struggles to keep things engaging. Yes, the film clearly wants viewers to rethink how we perceive teenagers who are deemed delinquents or outcasts, but it also leaves us feeling like it lacks a message unique or sophisticated enough to match its layered evaluation of its characters. Even its ending becomes more stereotypical than the subject deserves.

However, on its base-most level, it is at least effective as a tribute to teachers who keep showing up despite impossible odds. At 92 minutes, it may not be flashy enough to capture a wide audiences, but it will reward those looking for yet another riveting turn from Cillian Murphy (which isn’t at all surprising at this point).

Set in the mid-90s, the story follows a pivotal day in the life of Steve (Cillian Murphy), the head teacher of Stanton Wood, a last-chance reform school for troubled teenagers. The students have a mix of problems, which can lead to violent tendencies and mental health problems. Along with his colleagues that include Amanda (Tracey Ullman), Shola (Simbi Ajikawo), and Jenny (Emily Watson), Steve fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure, all the while as he grapples with his own mental health.

However, the arrival of a documentary crew and a politician’s superficial visit make things more interesting as they expose the harsh realities of neglected boys and the educators who are trying to hold everything together. Meanwhile, Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen, finds himself caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence.

Filmed in a handheld style, the film uses its setting effectively by incorporating fashion trends and music from the period, allowing the story to focus more on the interactions between the kids and staff.

While stories that focus on educators often portray them as idealistic heroes who can teach the unteachable, the film takes a more nuanced approach to showing us these teachers as flawed human beings themselves who fight for the troubled kids, rather than writing them off as lost causes.

Yet, director Mielants’ construction of the narrative can feel a little theatrical, particularly when it’s punctuated by distracting cuts between the crew’s footage and his own lens. For as genuine as the film is and as much as the film shines a light on the complicated nature of the teenage boys in his care, the students are also painted rather holistically.

Most of the time spent with them is spent watching them feign machismo in front of the news cameras or beating each other up. Thankfully, we catch a glimpse of their personalities in between.

Though Steve remains the focal point of the narrative, particularly how he is keeping all of his pain bottled up, it remains Shy’s story at its core.

His depressive arc after receiving a callous phone call from his mother explaining that she and his step-father have decided to cease all contact with him runs throughout the film’s firmament like a fault line, with Steve’s nature bringing him tantalizingly close to a breakthrough just as his own barely-concealed issues and the competing pressures of keeping an understaffed and underfunded institution from erupting into chaos keep pulling him frustratingly out of reach.

Unfortunately, the culmination of all story arcs kind of fall apart in the climax. What had been a no-nonsense drama ends on a more sentimental note that I believe was meant to evoke a sense of peace and hope, but ultimately felt tacked on and unearned. The film also teases issues of race and class, but then quickly forgets them.

But what gives the film its strength is the performances, led by a consistently excellent Cillian Murphy, who, once again, plays an emotionally drained and dour protagonist. His performance builds slowly, and when he finally breaks down, it feels both painful and real. Jay Lycurgo is equally strong and believable was a young man who is both angry and desperate to be understood.

Tracey Ullman, Simbi Ajikawo and Emily Watson showcase some serious dramatic chops, while Ahmed Ismail, Archie Fisher, Luke Ayres and Joshua Barry bring in sharp turns. On the whole, ‘Steve‘ is an unnerving and messy school drama that sees Cillian Murphy shine once again in a complicated role.