Directed by: Tim Mielants
Written by: Max Porter
Run Time: 1 hour 32 mins

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After his Oscar-winning turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) Cillian Murphy’s next role – as Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant in Tim Mielant’s Small Things Like These (2024) – felt comparatively scaled back. Though not a story of the same geographical magnitude, Mielant’s film, with its quiet but powerful exploration of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, proved to be no less significant. No doubt inspired by the film’s success and seemingly still keen to tell stories about the most vulnerable in society, the pair have reunited for new Netflix drama, Steve.

The film follows reform college headmaster Steve (Cillian Murphy) as he makes his way through a challenging shift. His day consists of attending difficult meetings, teaching lessons, and breaking up physical fights between students – and as if that wasn’t enough, he’s also got an invasive TV crew to contend with, as they try to shoot a segment about the school for the news. Amidst all the chaos, one student, Shy (Jay Lycurgo), receives some distressing news, and as the day goes on the staff struggle to provide the level of support that he requires to properly deal with it.

Interestingly, there are many parallels between Steve and Petra Volpe’s recent medical drama Late Shift (2025). As both depict public sector workers stretched far too thin under extreme pressure, while still expected to go well beyond what should be considered reasonable. However, while Late Shift offers a contemporary insight into the dire state of current medical services, Steve instead looks back in time – to the mid-90s – providing a compelling time capsule of this period. In doing so, it astutely illuminates the attitudes of the time while also exposing the many systemic failings that sadly still feel relevant today.

The presence of the TV crew offers an intriguing look at how the media can shape public discourse. Rather than focusing on the individual students; vulnerable young men in urgent need of support, they reduce both the students and the school to a point of controversy, questioning the necessity of its funding. The irony is striking, considering just how poorly supported Steve and his co-workers actually are – only made more evident in one particularly devastating meeting with two board representatives. Elsewhere, Max Porter’s screenplay, adapted from his 2023 novella Shy, continues to expose the ignorance and disregard for the school’s students with a visit from the local MP – an aptly pompous Roger Allam – whose brief appearance puts the obvious injustices into particularly poignant perspective.

So while the in-film production of this school feature allows audiences to understand the feeling of disdain towards these troubled teens, it also offers a variety in how Steve itself is presented. Its mixture of fly-on-the-wall documentary style filmmaking, longer one takes and more intimate interview segments creates a scrapbook like collage of place and character. Subsequently, it does take a little longer for Steve to fully come together, with its second act at times threatening to become a little aimless. However, Mielants innovates even further on occasion, giving Steve moments of more stylised drama that mirror the feelings and mood of the headteacher, a caring man that needs just as much support as the kids he’s been entrusted with.

As the titular headmaster, Cillian Murphy is on predictably fine form. He convincingly shifts between this grounded figure of wisdom and experience, to a man dangerously close to the brink of collapse. The interviewer from the TV crew asks Steve to describe himself in three words, his answer? “Very very tired,” and Murphy embodies this to the utmost, presenting this overworked headteacher as appropriately disheveled and completely exasperated. Yet, there always seems to be some limitless force driving him forward.

His dependable co-workers could certainly be considered the source of this resolve. Tracey Ullman’s deputy head, Amanda, keeps a watchful, concerned eye over him, while Emily Watson’s school counsellor, Jenny, takes a sterner approach – firmly reminding Steve of his duty of care towards his students. Both Ullman and Watson make their characters feel like intrinsic parts of the school environment, sharing Steve’s quiet sympathy and sense of responsibility to the students.

Of course, the boys themselves play a vital role in Steve’s perseverance too. This is clear from the very beginning as he earnestly encourages the lads to be and do better. Although the depth of his care and respect is reinforced most notably in one especially moving moment near the end of the film. A moment that cuts through all the noise and really sees the boys for who they are, not who others say they are. Now there’s no denying that they’re a boisterous bunch, but the young cast rise to the challenge of portraying such spirited personalities with much heart, and none more so than Jay Lycurgo as Shy.

This is perhaps unsurprising considering the name of Porter’s novella (Shy) on which the film is based. It’s certainly a more appealing title than the rather mundane and unremarkable Steve – even if it makes sense considering Murphy’s leading turn. Nonetheless, out of all the boys, the specific focus on Shy is an engaging one. As despite his story often unfolding aside to the other, more raucous college commotion, Lycurgo brings a sensitivity to the role that sees nuance and authentic emotion incorporated in a captivating way. This isn’t to say that his character doesn’t have outbursts of his own, but ultimately in both the quiet and the loud he manages to hold his own against his Oscar-winning co-star.

Together the pair are superb, painting a damning portrait of two men failed by the very institutions that should have protected them. And while its setting, nearly thirty years in the past, should allow the chance to look back and reflect on how far we’ve come, in actuality, Steve will more likely leave audiences wondering: has much really changed at all?

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Star Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

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